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The 2016 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards

These days, there’s an award ceremony for just about everything—mobile marketing included. 

Honoring the men, women, and collaborative teams that conceptualize and deliver the most compelling media via mobile, this year’s Effective Mobile Marketing Awards will be held in London, on Nov. 17, 2016. 

Big brands and unknown startups alike will toast one another at this gala-style celebration produced by the industry’s leading publication and mobile authority, Mobile Marketing Magazine. 

 

An International Celebration 

This is the sixth year that the publication will produce the anticipated awards ceremony, covering more than 36 categories of all things mobile, including services like Most Effective Publisher Offering; products like Most Effective In-Car App; and mobile marketing campaigns such as Most Effective Brand Campaign. 

With such broad categories, it’s no wonder that a wide range of mobile marketers gather each year to compete for recognition among their peers. 

Notable winners from last year’s awards include Audi, winner of Most Effective Brand; Start-up of the Year went to UsherU, and Most Effective Mobile First Solution went to Domino’s Pizza and Future Platforms.

The event also serves as a valuable networking opportunity. David Murphy, editorial director and co-founder of Dot Media, is the brainchild behind Mobile Marketing Magazine, founded in 2005, and the awards ceremony.

Murphy also manages the magazine’s speaker program and other mobile marketing events, like the Mobile Marketing Summits. He presented several of the awards at last year’s awards ceremony, and will likely be a big part of this year’s event. 

 

How to Enter 

The entry process has been streamlined this year, thanks in part to a new awards portal system, where you can now submit entries and supporting materials with an account that allows you to stop and start your application process as need be. 

The entry period is open now through August 5. Early bird applicants will receive a discount if they submit their applications before July 22. The cost to enter is £175 per entry, per category.

This year, the awards show has launched a People’s Choice Awards Category, in which the industry picks the shortlist and the winners. 

A new crop of judges has been selected for this year’s awards show as well, including industry leaders like Elaine Smith, head of digital product management at House of Fraser, and Glynn Pegler, CEO of Culture Group.

For mobile marketers, and digital media players of all backgrounds, this annual event showcases a year’s work in vivid color, and recognizes many of the people involved in prolific mobile campaigns. Brands usually get the credit for viral media, but this awards show lets the minds behind the campaigns take center stage. 

FordPass App Promises 'Mobility Solutions' That Go Beyond Cars

Ford is entering the mobile technology ring with the launch of a new app. The company announced the FordPass mobile app in January of this year at the North American International Auto Show. The app is designed to help people get “from here to there,” whether by Ford vehicle, public transportation, ride-sharing or rent-a-bike service, or another car. There’s even a parking assistance feature. 

 

A ‘Marketplace for Mobility Solutions’

The idea behind the FordPass app is to provide consumers with “a marketplace for mobility solutions.” Spokespeople for the renowned vehicle brand note that while the core business concerns selling vehicles, the whole industry is shifting to serve consumers’ general mobility needs. This includes consumers who don’t always require a vehicle to go from “here to there.” 

Vehicle sharing is increasingly commonplace, a fact that Ford recognizes. The company is subsequently crafting a “whole ecosystem” that extends beyond standard vehicle buying and current customers to include non-Ford owners. 

 

What the App Does

FordPass revolves around the ‘My Vehicles’ feature that lets drivers add their cars and trucks and review basic model details, such as when the vehicle was purchased, current fuel level, color, and how many miles it has. Product recalls are also included if necessary. This may be accomplished by scanning a vehicle’s barcode. 

In addition to providing useful vehicle information, the mobile app functions as an extra key capable of remotely locking and unlocking the vehicle and starting the engine. However, this feature is only usable on cars with modern functionalities, such as the 2017 Ford Escape. The feature is indicative of things to come, as key access is one of the biggest issues currently surrounding car-sharing. 

Other app features include parking assistance, which allows drivers to take photos of where they parked and save related maps. The app offers a number of features, but Ford is hoping to create one app to rule them all rather than sticking drivers with multiple car apps. 

 

Loyalty Program

Ford wants not only to maintain its existing client base, but also to attract new customers through a loyalty program. The program will launch later this year in the U.S. and is set to be the brand’s first-ever “global loyalty scheme.” Points are accrued by buying a Ford vehicle, scheduling a car share or parking space through the app, and filling up on gas at a partnered BP garage, among other things. These points are redeemed to provide free oil changes, free winter check with new windshield wipers, and essentially anything else available through FordPass. 

The vehicle brand is (obviously) hoping for great success with the mobile app, as it aims to be the “Apple of the mobility world.” 

 

Using Mobile Tech to Stay Safe

Can mobile devices help you stay safe under many varied circumstances? The answer is a resounding “absolutely.” Your smartphone or tablet won’t take the place of a muscle-bound bodyguard, nor do they mean you should voluntarily put yourself in harm’s way. However, they will help you remain safe and secure, thanks to a number of apps and alert systems. Check them out and feel better walking down a dark alley (not that you should): 

 

bSafe

bSafe is a free personal safety app designed for both Android and iOS. Features including the ability to notify friends and family of your current whereabouts, letting them know when you’ve arrived at your destination and sending exact GPS location information while en route. The latter makes it easy for your emergency contacts to determine where you are at all times. Another bSafe feature is programming faux phone calls so it looks like you’re talking to someone while around shady characters. Should you require immediate assistance, the app activates an alarm that also triggers your phone’s camera to start recording the incident. 

 

SafeTrek

SafeTrek is the free app to use when you find yourself in a less-than-safe situation. It alerts the police so they can help you as soon as possible. The app is designed to prevent accidental alerts via the ‘Safe’ button that launches the app when you press it. Once you stop pressing, you’ll be asked to enter a four-digit code that tells the police where you are and to make haste to your location. You therefore don’t have to worry about notifying the police because you sat on your phone while at brunch.

 

Disaster Alert

The Disaster Alert app was created by Pacific Disaster Center and remains one of its World Disaster Alerts. This app provides access to several hazard-monitoring organizations, and sends alerts should a severe storm or other natural disaster make its way to your town or city. Its DisasterAWARE platform offers real-time access to current data on natural disasters, both near your location and around the globe, and provides important warnings should you need to get out of town. Disaster Alert has some 1.5 billion users worldwide so far. 

These and similar apps make outstanding practical use of mobile technology, though again it’s necessary to emphasize that such options are not substitutes for 911 emergency calls. It’s still important to contact the emergency number when possible and if the situation calls for it, such as if a crime is taking place or immediate help is required to save your life or someone else’s. That said, emergency and safety apps are a great help as they allow for discretion, which is often required in a dangerous situation. Use one or more safety apps as part of your overall safety plan and remember to avoid anything you suspect as dangerous. It’s better to be safe than very, very sorry. 

mHealth Wearable Market Set for 135 Percent Annual Growth Rate

Pharmaceutical companies are the driving force behind rapid growth in the mHealth wearable market; an estimated 97.6 million devices are expected to ship by 2021. The compound annual growth rate of mHealth is set to increase by 135 percent in the next five years, and the hope is that these mobile healthcare devices will provide quality care to patients and help providers make better decisions.

These healthcare statistics are from a recent study published by Tractica called, “Wearable Devices for Healthcare Markets.” The study covers current devices available, how they’re being used, and adoption timelines within the industry. 

Some wearables are more familiar to us than others. For example, smart watches can track everything from heart rate to dietary habits, and fitness trackers are already being used to monitor patient activity levels. There are new technologies like wearable patches and delivery pods that are administering pain medication and management therapies, as well as a slew of other devices under review by the FDA. 

 

Why Wearables?

The healthcare industry in particular has a lot to gain from mobile technology, such as the wearables just mentioned. Most healthcare providers have taken on more patients as a result of mandatory healthcare legislation, which means medical resources have thinned in some areas. Mobile technology provides doctors and insurances companies with assistance during this dramatic growth by automating, tracking, and administering basic care in some instances, without the need to go to the doctor’s office. It also gives doctors greater insight when following up with patients, to ensure treatment plans and therapies are as effective as they can be. 

Similarly, patients have more freedom to go about their lives while tracking their health concerns via mobile. 

 

Challenges Ahead

Digital health solutions are focused on decreasing quality care costs and expanding patient services, but that goal is not without its own set of obstacles. 

For one thing, mobile healthcare is still very much in its infancy, and early adopters are managing high costs with the prospect of more affordable solutions in the near future.  Moreover, the FDA review process can be lengthy, sometimes taking as long as a year. 

Patient challenges are even more unique. The generation that will benefit most from wearable technology in the midst of our fluctuating healthcare system is also a generation of less technically savvy patients. Tractica’s report suggests that elderly patients have a difficult time using the mobile devices because they’re less familiar with computers and smartphones. Educating patients about mobile healthcare is still too expensive and time consuming, so providers aren’t able to offer much of a solution yet. 

The other major obstacle providers, insurance companies, and clinical trials must overcome involves aggregating and analyzing large amounts of data. In addition to storing and organizing this data, doctors have to become familiar with interpreting it, which means there’s a learning curve for them as well. 

Despite these challenges, mHealth and wearable devices are predicted to make huge waves in the healthcare industry during the next five years—most likely out of necessity.