Jack in the Box’s new campaign is for the chain’s new line of BLT cheeseburgers and includes mobile, Web, social media and television. StruckAxiom is Jack in the Box’s digital agency of record and worked with the company on this digital initiative.

“We are definitely looking into other opportunities in the mobile space as Jack in the Box expands their digital efforts,” said Nick Fletcher, deputy vice president of marketing communications at Jack in the Box, San Diego, CA.

“We want to make sure we are providing our customers with the best experiences possible by means they are most comfortable with,” he said.

Bringing home the bacon
The campaign is aimed at Jack in the Box’s group of young, tech-savvy males and runs through April 18.

The slogan of the campaign is, “Love bacon? Marry it.”

The mobile component revolves around a mobile microsite that users can enter by typing http://www.marrybacon.com into their mobile browsers.

On the mobile site, users can watch a 30-second clip that is also running across TV and features a man who is so in love with his cheeseburger that he marries it.

Users can test their love for bacon on the mobile site with a feature that lets them press their finger on their mobile device to get a reading of how much they love bacon.

The feature is touch-sensitive. Users are then given a percentage that represents their love of bacon.

The site lets users test their bacon love

Users can also browse and share pictures from the campaign via Facebook and Twitter.

The mobile site also connects with a campaign-specific Tumblr page that Jack in the Box has set up to chronicle the main character’s love for bacon.

Users can also buy Jack in the Box merchandise via the mobile site.

Here is the Jack in the Box commercial

Mobile calls-to-action are included in the site for the line of new cheeseburgers in addition to a bacon-flavored milkshake that Jack in the Box has also rolled out.

The fast food restaurant will also be adding a SMS component with messages to users who are opted-in to Jack in the Box’s Secret Society loyalty program.

The digital effort also includes a Web site with similar features that put bacon as the main image of the campaign. Social media is also being used as well as TV spots.

Digital fast food
The BLT hamburger campaign is part of a broader initiative for Jack in the Box to dig further into digital media.

Jack in the Box has embraced mobile in other ways, including SMS, mobile coupons and a mobile site, but this campaign marks the a major digital push for the quick-serve restaurant.

This campaign from Jack in the Box carves out a particular niche of young males who are digitally-savvy.

By tying the campaign to multiple digital touch points, Jack in the Box is able to incorporate mobile marketing as a component of the overall campaign.

“Research has shown that our audience tends to go mobile first as they spend their time digitally,” said John Gross, strategist and account director at StruckAxiom, Portland, OR.

“We felt our audience would completely miss past digital tactics such as Facebook tabs and Flash pieces, so we specifically set out to create a campaign not just with a mobile component, but that started with mobile first and then adapted for other platforms,” he said.

“Additionally, we wanted to create snack-sized pieces of content that were on-brand and shareable to keep the site sticky throughout the life of the campaign.”

Source: Mobile Marketer – http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/12076.html

Scanbuy’s trend report for the fourth quarter of 2011 focused on how publishers and marketers are using mobile bar codes and found a substantial increase in consumer packaged goods brands using QR codes to elevate their campaigns. The study also broke down mobile bar code statistics for users, including age, location and time.

“Consumer packaged goods brands tend to adopt technology as it becomes more mainstream for their consumer audience,” said Mike Wehrs, president/CEO of Scanbuy, New York.

“The fact is that millions of people now have smartphones, and they are using those devices to get more information wherever they may be,” he said.

“QR codes are an amazing way to deliver that content in an engaging and simple way.”

Mobile scans
The Scanbuy report found that the three most common areas that mobile bar codes appear in are magazines and newspapers, on-pack products and direct mail.

Consumer packaged goods brands were the No. 1 industry for mobile bar codes, showing the importance that mobile plays for on-package labeling.

Other top industries for mobile bar code scanning included retail, entertainment, editorial and wireless.

The study looked closely at the age and gender of QR code users and found that more than one-third of consumers who scan mobile bar codes are under the age of 25.

Specifically, 28 percent of mobile bar code scans came from users ages 25–34.

Males outnumber females with mobile bar code scanning, per Scanbuy.

The study found that 63 percent of males were scanning QR codes compared to the 37 percent of females who were scanning.

The report also looked at mobile bar code scanning by device. Android leads the pack with 50 percent of mobile bar code scans followed by iPhone with 39 percent. BlackBerry scans made up 6 percent of Scanbuy’s findings followed by Symbian with 4 percent.

Additionally, Scanbuy saw that its registrations increased 360 percent year-to-year.

Marketer adoption
The study also looked at how mobile bar code scanning differs by country.

The United States continues to hold the No. 1 spot with the most mobile bar code scans. Spain, Canada, Denmark and France rounded out the top five countries.

Additionally, Israel made the No. 10 list for the first time, showing how mobile bar code scanning is becoming more prevalent internationally.

According to Scanbuy’s findings, 50 percent of marketers are using mobile bar codes. Eighty-six percent of marketers plan to either continue using them or will roll out initiatives in the future.

During Black Friday, QR code scanning received the most activity in the morning and late at night, showing that consumers are using their devices to comparison shop.

“The growth in consumer adoption is moving very quickly, and it is closely reflecting the curve on smartphone activation,” Mr. Wehrs said.

“We expect marketers to move beyond the test and learn phase into national and international deployments that will really make an impact to their business,” he said.

Source: Mobile Marketer – http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/12018.html

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BlueTrain Mobile – the leading provider of mobile websites for professional marketers and agencies – announces the Mobile Marketing Map, a complete guide to the mobile marketing landscape. With 130 resources in 23 categories, the Mobile Marketing Map is the easiest way to find to everything mobile, including industry news, analysts and blogs, mobile emulators and tools, mobile advertising and SEO, QR code generators, stats about the most popular smartphones and screen resolutions, and much more.

“We added a note within the Map key asking for feedback so that we can continue to evolve the Map.”

“Just go to bluetrainmobile.com/map to download the map. Feel free to send it out to people you know or post the image to your blog – we only ask that you link back to the page,” says Andy Komack, VP and Conductor of Marketing of BlueTrain Mobile. “We’re excited to unveil the Mobile Marketing Map and we think it’s going to be a great resource for any marketer interested in mobile!” Komack adds that BlueTrain Mobile is also encouraging people to provide suggestions and feedback to improve the Mobile Marketing Map, “We added a note within the Map key asking for feedback so that we can continue to evolve the Map.”

Jamie Turner, co-author of the new book “Go Mobile”, says, “BlueTrain has created an incredibly valuable resource for marketers. This is something you can print, hang on your wall, and refer back to in your effort to leverage the mobile channel.”

Steffan Berelowitz, CEO of BlueTrain Mobile, added that the concept of the map came from their friends at Overdrive Interactive, “We want to thank Harry Gold and his team at Overdrive Interactive, who pioneered the concept of a resource map for social media and search engine marketing. You can check out their latest social media map at http://www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map/. Harry gave us the encouragement to create a map for the mobile landscape.”

Download the Mobile Marketing Map

Point your browser to bluetrainmobile.com/map. Feel free to post it to your blog, just link back to the page!

About BlueTrain Mobile

BlueTrain Mobile, based in Cambridge, MA, is a mobile website Software as a Solution (SaaS) provider. The company enables its customers to create professional and compelling mobile websites. BlueTrain Mobile also offers personalized advice on how to effectively translate the design and brand personality of its customers’ desktop websites into a streamlined experience for their mobile audience. To learn more about BlueTrain Mobile, visit http://www.bluetrainmobile.com.

January 3, 2012

Samuel Adams is placing QR codes on its bar coasters this holiday season as a way to generate excitement and make it easy for consumers to take advantage of a special holiday offer.

Samuel Adams parent company Boston Beer worked with Wall Printing Co. to create interactive four-panel coasters that fold in a series of directions to reveal the different panels. A QR code features prominently on one of the panels and encourages bar customers to scan it for a special holiday offer.

“The QR code is a great way to instantly connect people with smartphones to information,” said Mike Vitamvas, a partner with Wall Printing Co., High Point, NC.

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“This is the first time we have put it on a coaster for one of our clients, but we have used it on a number of different applications,” he said.

“The Samuel Adams coaster, which consists of four panels that make a never ending loop has been a great way to generate interest. The interaction is smooth and easy to use on iPhones and Android devices. Hopefully they will be able to get you numbers.”

Time for action
The coaster is intended to make people notice the Samuel Adams brand and the special offer.

It also encourages consumers to take action not only by folding the coaster to reveal the various panels but also by scanning the QR to receive a discount on Samuel Adams beer glasses.

Mobile phone users who scan the QR code are taken to a mobile site where they are prompted to enter their name, email address, mailing address and date of birth to receive a coupon good toward the purchase of Samuel Adams glasses from the brand’s ecommerce site.

Another of Wall Printing’s clients is a restaurant that created thank you cards which included three QR codes, one that took customers to the restaurant’s Facebook page, another to Google Place and the last to Yelp. As a result, the restaurant has increased the number of reviews it is getting and improved its rankings in local listings.

“I’m finding more companies having an interest in adding QR codes to everything from marketing pieces to instruction manuals where they take you to a video that shows you have to assemble the product,” Mr. Vitamvas said.

source Mobile Marketer Daily: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/11810.html

That figure is more than double the 18% of two years ago and on track to meet Nielsen’s projection that half of American mobile users will have smartphones by the end of 2011. (comScore estimates U.S. smartphone penetration somewhat lower, at 38.5% as of the end of October.)

Smartphone penetration has been closely tracked because it is viewed as a springboard for growing mobile media and advertising as well as m-commerce. In that vein, the Nielsen report shows the share of smartphone owners accessing the mobile Web and downloading apps increased to 57% and 49%, respectively, in the third quarter.

Game-playing on smartphones has grown, especially over the last year, thanks to hit games like “Angry Birds” and “Fruit Ninja.” The share of people downloading games is up 83% to 35%, while those playing online games have nearly doubled to 16%. Streaming online music or radio is the third fastest-growing activity, up by two-thirds to 29% of smartphone users. The mobile video audience, meanwhile, has increased 35% to 31 million, or about 14% of mobile users.

When it comes to mobile apps, it’s no surprise that Android and iOS dominate, with 83% of those who downloaded titles in the last 30 days using an Android-based device or iPhone. The Google mobile platform, which runs on 44% of U.S. smartphones, has also eclipsed Apple’s iOS in share of recent app downloads, by 49% to 34%.

Among Android users, Google apps such as Gmail, Google Search, Android Market and Google Maps are the most popular, with Facebook squeezing in among them. With so many apps — now more than 1 million apps through Android and iOS devices alone — finding new or specific titles isn’t getting any easier. Searching app storefronts remains the most common way to find new apps, with nearly two-thirds (63%) going that route.

Recommendations from friends and family, third-party sites and apps that advertise other apps are other ways that people learn about new apps. The top 50 apps account for the majority of time spent on Android phones, but the lineup of most popular apps is constantly changing. One in five was new to the top 50 in September.

The Nielsen report also shows widespread adoption of daily deal sites on smartphones. Among people who download apps, 87% have used deal apps in the last 30 days. The most popular were Groupon (79%) and Living Social (48%), with Yelp a distant third at 9%. Looking at m-commerce more widely, the study found that half (49%) of mobile consumers use their smartphones frequently while out shopping.

The year 2000 may have seen the dot-com bubble reach the limits of its inflation, but at that point the Internet marketing industry was really only getting started. Rapid increases in personal computing accessibility and the unstoppable growth of search have, among other things, facilitated a very buoyant market in online promotion via SEO – search engine optimization – and related services.

From the beginning, the various milestones, modifications and perhaps revolutions in Internet marketing stemmed largely from changes and innovations in software. Chat rooms came and went, some search engines got lost, whilst others found their way, and algorithm updates caused disruption and delight in equal measure (it’s a zero-sum game after all). However, while software will undoubtedly continue to impact, it is hardware that is now taking its turn to shake up the industry and potentially change the working landscape for internet marketers and website owners around the world.

Mobile internet usage is set to overtake desktop Internet usage by 2014, and what’s more, the way people use their mobile devices to browse is very different. This represents a colossal threat and concurrent opportunity for Internet marketers, and it is only those that can truly appreciate how the Internet will be consumed via these various new mobile devices that will prosper. Here are just some of the ways Internet (and search) usage is likely to change.

• Using mobiles to type-search. Using a traditional keyboard to enter a search query into Google is usually easier and quicker than doing the same on a mobile device. It is highly likely therefore that users will search for shorter keyword strings on mobile devices, or rely more heavily on tools such as predictive text or Google Suggest. This will likely influence the way sites optimise their content and carry out their link building.
• Voice search. In contrast to the previous point, there has been a rise in popularity of using voice search on mobile devices via Google or Yahoo search apps, or Apple iPhone’s Siri for example. This may make searching quicker and easier, but it should be noted that people tend to search differently when speaking, using more of a conversional sentence structure. For example, you may type-search “best netbooks”, but voice-search “what are the best netbooks available.” This is likely to influence a site’s keyword targeting.
• Search by image. Tools such as Google Goggles allow users to very quickly search the Web using images on their phone or photos taken on the fly. Applications of this technology include taking a picture of a book in a store to find the best price, or using the picture of a restaurant front to find customer reviews. Ensuring your content and imagery are optimised for this form of search is likely to become increasingly important.
• Industry trends. As mobile Internet data shows, uptake levels are not necessarily equal across all industries. Travel, for example, is one area where growth in mobile Internet (and search) is increasing at pace, and is therefore likely to be a strong focus for this market moving forwards.
• Sociability.  91% of mobile Internet access is to socialize, compared to 79% on desktops. If Internet marketers haven’t been listening to the “search turning social” talk of recent years, then they certainly should be now. If they still cannot engage with individuals and groups on a social level they will be missing out on a massive proportion of mobile Internet usage.
• Geo-targeting. As well as a number of apps utilizing a user’s geo-location to enhance their functionality, so too does Google use it to show localized search results. If you hadn’t noticed, mobile devices tend to be used in multiple locations, therefore search results are highly likely to fluctuate more on mobile devices. Making sure your website’s “local” offering is up to scratch should be towards the top of your priority list.
• Immediacy. At the recent World Travel Market in London, a Google spokesperson revealed stats from ebooker.com saying that 70% of mobile hotel bookings were same-day check in. They also showed stats from easyJet stating 38% of mobile bookings were for flights departing within 10 days, compared to only 13% from desktops. This clearly shows a more immediate-requirement trend in mobile usage, for travel market at least, and this certainly might influence the kinds of content/offers that sites show to their mobile visitors.

It is true that the mobile Web is still in its infancy, but given the rate of adoption and innovation in the area, it already deserves a great deal of attention from Internet marketers, regardless of specialism. Ben Wood, mobile phone analyst at CCS Insight said the mobile phone may be “the most prolific consumer device on the planet”. Much like all Internet marketing that has gone before, research, innovation and testing will form the building blocks of a stable and lucrative mobile Web campaign. However, those that cannot see a need to seriously evolve their approach as a result of this shift will struggle.

Source: Forbes Magazine online – http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/12/01/how-the-mobile-web-changes-the-seo-landscape/

Smartphone ownership in the United States is on the rise. But a survey by Nielsen suggest that it is happening among some age groups faster than others.

Nielsen’s third-quarter survey of mobile phone users found that 43 percent of them have upgraded to a smartphone. For mobile users below the age of 44, the smartphone is speeding toward mass adoption.

“This is a wake-up call for potential advertisers waiting for a tipping point for mobile media or for smartphones to reach the majority,” said Don Kellogg, director of telecom research and insights at Nielsen. “We’re already there with certain segments – 62 percent of those ages 25 to 34 already have smartphones. That’s critical mass.”

After young adults, however, the segment with the fastest-growing smartphone adoption rate is older phone owners, between the ages of 55 and 64. Although the penetration among those users is only 30 percent, that figure jumped 5 percentage points this quarter.

Teenagers are still slower to adopt smartphones, probably due to the high cost of the devices and the expensive data plans they require.

The survey also found that Android is hanging on to its position atop the totem pole of mobile operating systems in the United States, with 43 percent of the market. However, Apple is the top smartphone manufacturer, with 28 percent of smartphone owners owning an iPhone.

Source New York Times: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/most-young-americans-now-own-smartphones-survey-says/

Apple iOS remains popular in second place with 28 percent of all smartphone users, and the same percentage among those who recently got a new device. But those figures could change quickly in the months to come. Every time Apple launches a new iPhone or makes it available on a new wireless carrier, there is an increase in their sales.

Changes in share aside, the smartphone pie is getting bigger. While 43 percent of all mobile subscribers in the US had a smartphone as of August, 56 percent of those who got a new device in the last 3 months chose a smartphone over a feature phone. The holiday season and the launch of new devices like the next iPhone could further accelerate smartphone adoption, though this is always tempered by the fact that many consumers are unwilling or unable to break their service contracts before they expire. In any event, the growing popularity of app-and-media friendly smartphones spells tremendous opportunity for those advertisers, publishers and developers eager to leverage mobile media.

Source: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en.html

Compuware, which owns the Gomez brand, says that users expect their mobile experience to be as good as their desktop experience, further driving the claim that mobile-optimized sites are a must.

Sixty percent of users expect a mobile site to load in three seconds or less, while 71 percent expect the mobile site to load as fast as a PC site, Compuware found in a recent study. And 78 percent will retry a site two times or less if it does not load initially.

A bad mobile experience can cost a business its customers, the Compuware study found. In fact, 57 percent of consumers would not recommend a business without a mobile site, 40 percent have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience and 25 percent of adults have cursed at their phone when a site does not work.

According to Google, customers are using the mobile Web to connect with local businesses.

A whopping 95 percent of smartphone users have searched for local information, claims Google. Sixty-one percent of consumers call a business after searching for it and 59 percent visit the location.

Additionally, 90 percent of people act within 24-hours.

Google says that apps are fun and useful but many consumers prefer mobile sites for shopping.

In fact, according to Adobe, 81 percent of people prefer a mobile site over apps for researching prices, 79 percent prefer a mobile site for product reviews and 63 percent prefer to purchase via a mobile site.

Best practice

Mobile Web best practices are listed by Google:

1. Keep it quick

2. Simplify navigation

3. Be thumb-friendly

4. Design for visibility

5. Make it accessible

6. Make it easy to convert

7. Make it local

8. Make it seamless

9. Use mobile site redirects

10. Learn, listen and iterate

“All businesses, big and small, need to understand how to reach their customers on the mobile Web,” said Jason Spero, director of mobile for Americas at Google, Mountain View, CA.

source: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/11385.html