Amnicomm Blog

17 November 2010
Procter & Gamble’s Always has rolled out an application that not only provides branded content and tips, but also lets women discreetly buy feminine hygiene products directly on their mobile devices.

The Always Me application lets women track and manage their menstrual cycle and offers a unique Q&A feature that allows females to submit questions and receive timely feedback within 24 hours. The application also sends relevant health tips throughout the month directly to consumers’ phone.

“As the leader in the feminine care category, we know women want access to timely information about their periods and cycle and through this mobile application we’re able to provide them with that,” said Courtney Schuster, global brand manager for Always at P&G, Bethel, CT.

“We have a long history of listening to our consumers and making sure our product and initiatives answer their needs, and the creation of Always Me is one such example,” she said. “The goal of Always Me is to serve as a personalized, on-the-go mobile application tool that helps women to manage their cycles and offers timely support and advice.

“The application has been designed for a broad range of women from the college girl who might have a Spring Break trip planned, a bride planning around her wedding date, a couple trying to conceive or an on-the-go professional ensuring her period doesn’t surprise her.”

Input from key influencers
The P&G application was designed with input from a select group of women-focused Web site editors, bloggers and female health experts to help satisfy a fundamental need for women.

Not just a standard period and ovulation tracker, the Always Me application is a personalized, on-the-go application that helps women manage their cycles and offers timely support and advice.

Throughout life, a woman will inevitably have questions regarding her monthly cycle and want to have that information instantly at her fingertips, according to P&G.

One of the unique features of Always Me is a personalized question and answer function to address any personal or intimate questions that she may have.

Consumers can submit a question related to their menstrual cycle, and a health professional will provide a timely answer within 24 hours.

As part of the co-creation process, P&G provided a preview of the application to key influencers, including OB/GYNs, female cycle experts, women’s media and bloggers.

Influencers reviewed the application to test functionality and provided comments on their user experience.

What’s next?
Looking ahead, P&G has plans to expand the mobile application to include a wide range of useful information and tips for various aspects of a woman’s life, including skin, hair and beauty care – areas that can be affected during a women’s monthly cycle.

Always Me will continue to evolve as a resource for women, and consumer ratings and feedback will influence upgraded versions.

“This is the first time that we have launched a mobile application and we are very excited,” Ms. Schuster said. “We know that women are increasingly using their phones to access health information and adopting an on-the-go lifestyle.

“With this in mind, the Always Me application allows women to be in sync with their monthly cycles through something that already connects them with the world – their mobile devices,” she said.

via MobileMarketer

28 October 2010
NY,USA: Mobile will drive more sales in-store than actual salespeople this holiday season as consumers turn to the mobile Web and applications to research products, read reviews and compare prices, per an Ogilvy executive.

That was one of the takeaways from “Holiday Mobile Marketing: How to Get it Right at First Go,” a Mobile Marketer webinar sponsored by iLoop Mobile. The webinar provided insights on how to craft, deploy and track effective mobile campaigns in the medium’s first major holiday performance.

“Mobile will drive more sales in-store than human sales people,” said Gretchen Scheiman, partner and director for CRM at OgilvyOne Worldwide, New York. “If they can get access to reviews and all the data that is out there that is more trusted than salespeople, they’re going to turn to mobile.”

A Steve Madden executive revealed at the Mobile Shopping Summit that more than 10.5 percent of his company's total Web traffic is coming from mobile devices, representing 250 percent growth over the past six months.

The footwear brand sold 7,856 products in that time frame via mobile, generating $520,866 revenue, with an average order price of $83.70.

Steve Madden expects those numbers to increase steadily, with a spike during the upcoming holiday season.

“I think that retailers are better prepared for the holidays this year,” said Andrew Koven, president of ecommerce and customer experience at Steve Madden, New York. “Overall, as an industry, the one unexpected thing for consumers might be less aggressive discounting and that the best inventory might not last.”

InsightExpress predicts that there will be more research and purchases being made on mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads during the upcoming holiday season.

“People are going to take advantage of small snippets of time to browse retail Web sites and look for deals before they buy,” said Joy Liuzzo, senior director of marketing and mobile research at InsightExpress, New York.

“Sites that are prepared and mobilized will be providing a good experience and encouraging repeat visits,” she said. “The sites that are not optimized to be viewed on a mobile device are going to face a setback when they finally do go down that path.”

The panelists all agreed: Brands, agencies and retailers not mobile-enabling the shopping experience will really regret it this year while they watch others do it with great success.

25 October 2010
Warner Bros. is promoting its film “Inception” by having consumers snap a photo of the tag that gives them new content each week leading up to the DVD/Blu-ray launch.

The tag is featured on the Inception Facebook page, TV commercials, posters and on the DVD cover. Users can participate by taking a photo and sending it to a short code.

“Image recognition is a broad bucket of capability,” said Laura Marriott, board member at NeoMedia and former president of the Mobile Marketing Association.

“Mobile 2D codes can help engage the consumer and create a dialogue of interaction between consumer and brand by activating traditional and/or digital media,” she said.  “It also enables direct and easy connection to greater content which enables the campaign to communicate more than what they have in their initiative while using a very small part of overall campaign real estate."

15 October 2010

Starbucks and L’Oréal are the first brands on board for a six-month trial that relies on consumers opting-in to receive relevant messages based on age, gender, interests and – for the first time – their location.

Telefónica O2 UK Ltd. is the first British carrier to offer large-scale location-based mobile marketing, enabling brands such as Starbucks and L’Oréal to deliver geotargeted SMS and MMS to its opted-in subscribers. The service from O2 Media, O2’s mobile marketing arm, uses location-based geofencing technology via a partnership with mobile marketing company Placecast to power the trial.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time a carrier has turned on a location-based program at scale with their customers,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast, San Francisco. “O2 is one of the largest carriers in Britain, and they’re turning on this program with a million opted-in consumers, with Starbucks and L’Oreal signing on as the first brands.

“O2 can rotate multiple brands through this service, and it gives them the opportunity to create a valuable service for their customers and increase average revenue per user,” he said. “O2 has a program called O2 more, and we’re bringing the location component to that to deliver these messages, providing the ability to tie in a message and an offer to when a consumer is nearby and able to take advantage of it.

“This is an excellent opportunity to reach the minds of consumers when they’re ready to make a purchase—this is a global carrier embracing location-based mobile marketing on a large scale, which is a huge win for the industry.