The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

The Emmys Have Gone Mobile

In anticipation of the 63^rd Annual Emmy Awards, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has developed an app. The app features several wonderful ways to have a fully integrated experience while watching the primetime awards show. Further, the Emmy Awards Official App contains premium user value with real-time content as well as ongoing mobile archival content for the end user. Historically speaking, this marks the first time the Emmys has attempted to create an app for the show. Below is a list of some of the features of the app that will enhance a viewer’s experience:

Search Award Nominees by Category

The application doesn’t just list the categories that are televised; it includes an exhaustive list of all the awards. Once a category is chosen, a sub-menu pops up to reveal actor bios, synopses of shows, clips, photos, and fashion choices of the nominees. As the Emmys unfold, data in each category are updated in real time.

Archival Media

Using the navigational bar at the bottom of the screen, an app user can access the Emmy Awards’ archival media. This includes recordings of past awards shows, salient footage of actors, interviews, and the like. Incorporating the history of television and the Emmys into the app is innovative and dynamic, and presents a whole new aspect of the awards show to app users (particularly those users who’ve missed the Emmys in the past).

Backstage Live

“Backstage Live” offers the behind-the-scenes premium content that Emmy lovers are looking for. Using ten cameras to record the action, and Jane Lynch as your host, Backstage Live promises to give exclusive coverage and access. The app feature shows actors’ entrances and exits, greenroom moments, interviews in the pressroom, and conversations with honored artists in the Winners’ Lounge. Finally, the Thank You Cam follows winners, allowing them to dovetail their acceptance speeches with their more off-the-cuff elations.

The Emmy Awards Phone App is a testament to the variety of ways consumers can enjoy integrated media in this day and age. It has plenty of high-value media, both past and present, and incorporates media from all of the Television Academy’s myriad events. With a robust social media presence as well, the Emmys is hoping to draw in a record-breaking number of viewers on the night of the show. In the end, it appears that the directors, creators, and actors won’t be the only individuals to win this September— we present the Emmy App for your consideration. 

Online Video Essential for Mobile Marketers, say Google

 

In a recent study, Google and Ipsos MediaCT attempted to untangle the effects of video as it relates to advertising and branded messages. They surveyed US consumers who watched videos on different mobile devices and presented results that may influence the future of mobile marketing. 

In the report, Google points to “moments of truth” as a catalyst for the increase in mobile video activity. They are described as micro-moments found throughout the day, when users attempt to solve a problem, explore interests, or search for new products or services. They are, on a basic level, a desire for information. The study hypothesized that this information-seeking activity would benefit advertisers and brands, particularly when the information was presented in video format. 

According to the report, 50% of global viewership on YouTube comes from mobile devices. Over 50% of those surveyed said they used video to help make a purchase. Further, the research also suggests that people who view videos on their phones are 1.4X as likely to watch ads compared to desktop or television viewers. What’s more, in addition to watching these ads, mobile viewers are 1.8X more likely to share or interact with the ad or branded content.  

The significant behavioral findings in this report are linked to a personal connection individuals feel toward their mobile devices. Smartphones are inherently more intimate than a television of computer desktop, which in turn affects the way people view content — even paid content. 

However, the study also notes, brands must pay close attention to this deeply personal and intimate space. One way to accomplish this is to allow users the opportunity to skip the ad. More than three out of four people said having the choice to skip an ad was very important to them.  

Finally, the study concludes that smartphone video viewers are 1.2X as likely as desktop viewers to think more highly of companies that offer videos about their products and services. 

Companies that succeed in building creative, as well as informational videos will likely win those scattered micro-moments, and therefore succeed in building a stronger relationship with mobile viewers.  

As behaviors shift among mobile users, advertisers and branded content can rest assured they will continue to have a place in the growing mobile arena. By respecting a viewer’s expectations for relevance and choice, it’s possible to achieve substantial results from future video campaigns. 

The Most Famous Texts Ever Sent

Figures from 2010 put the estimated number of active SMS users at 3.5 billion. No other app even comes close to reaching half the world’s population, which is why stories and screenshots of funny, moving or just downright bizarre text messages abound on social media. 

Add a dose of celebrity into the mix and even the most ordinary of text messages can take on new significance. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit the most famous - and infamous - SMS messages ever sent, from Day 1 of the entire texting phenomenon.

Date: December 3 1992
Message: ‘Merry Christmas’ 

A little over twenty-two years ago, Neil Papworth sent the world’s very first SMS message. Those two words sparked a communications revolution, laying down the 160-character blueprint for short form messaging to come in the shape of Twitter and other social networking sites. 

Date: August 23 2008
Message: ‘Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee’

Nearly 3 million supporters received this text message from Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. The fact that such important news was announced this way made it clear that Obama was setting out his stall as the tech-savvy, forward-looking candidate opposite John McCain, the very picture of the old guard. Prior to that campaign, VPs were announced at televised campaign rallies; using SMS sent a very clear signal to the electorate: you use this technology, we use this technology, ergo we’re the same. By contrast, one of John Adams’ first moves as VP was to propose to the Senate that the newly-elected (and title-less) George Washington be dubbed “His Highness, the President of the United States, and Protector of the Rights of the Same” - not easy to announce in a text message.

Date: November 13 2009
Message: ‘Thatcher has died’

Canadian Transport Minister John Baird sparked a diplomatic panic when his alarming news - texted initially to a couple of friends - spread among high-ranking politicians and military officials. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on the cusp of issuing an official statement to mourn the death of the Iron Lady. Except she wasn’t dead. ‘Thatcher’ was the name of Baird’s tabby cat. The press pounced and the faces of Canada’s political establishment went Maple Red.

Date: January 2010
Message: ‘LOL’

In stark contrast to his American counterpart, British Prime Minister David Cameron has shown himself to be a bit dense when it comes to text-speak. He famously signed off texts to former News International boss Rebekah Brooks with ‘LOL’ - thinking it meant ‘lots of love’. And people call him out of touch?

Date: April 25 2014
Message: ‘The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus & Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human’

This bizarre random fact (which sounds like a morsel of banality from E.L. Wisty) was typed in 17 seconds by Marcel Fernandes Filho as a way of demonstrating the speed of the Fleksy keyboard app. It worked, and the company retained it’s Guinness World Record title as the world’s fastest keyboard. The phrase has been used to set small-screen speed-typing records for years, and earns itself a place in the SMS lexicon as one of the oddest commonly-typed series of words.

A New Meaning For HBO's "It’s Not TV, It’s HBO" Slogan

The Time Warner-owned TV powerhouse is expanding their “HBO Go” services for the iPad as well as other mobile devices with hopes to make is easier than ever to access popular HBO movies and shows. They want customers to be able to keep tabs on their favorite movies and television shows wherever they are.  According to Bloomberg, the service will be provided to already paying subscribers for no additional cost and should be available by early 2011. This could potentially attract more viewers to their iPad’s rather than to their televisions.

“There is value in exclusivity,” HBO co-president Eric Kessler, noting that viewers “are willing to pay a premium for high quality, exclusive content.”

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