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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Mobile Technology Weblog: Sponsored Post: Cellfire

The Mobile Technology Weblog: Sponsored Post: Cellfire

Cellfire has an interesting business model of delivering coupons to mobile phones via an on-device application. They stress -in several places- the opt-in nature of their application. This, of course, makes me very interested to find out more.

Because coupons are delivered to an application that you have specifically loaded onto your phone, they definitely qualify for opt-in. If Cellfire doesn't deliver on the value - the consumer will stop using the application and/or delete it from their device... Ala Opt-Out.

But I've got a few questions for the folks at Cellfire - and happy to post any comments they would like as answers:

1) How does Cellfire get promoted? Marketing this application to consumers will be one of the biggest challenges. I would assume that the advertisers that have coupons available would cross-promote but that's not quite enough. And I don't see any viral aspect to the service.

2) From the looks of the service, coupons are downloaded over WAP ( and a WAP Push is used to deliver the application in the first instance ). For consumer's on unlimited data this is not a problem - but I would like to know how consumers are made aware that there are data charges they may incur associated with receiving the coupons and/or for updating the application from time to time.

3) In the FAQ they state:

"Do cashiers scan my phone like a barcode?

Nope. Cell phone screens can't be scanned. The coupon code on Cellfire coupons looks a bit like a barcode, but that's just to make them look a bit like regular coupons."

And that's not true as there are a number of mobile coupon companies that deliver standard and pixelated bar code coupons to the phone where the phone is scanned as part of the redemption process. It's a small point - but it adds confusion to the other players in the market place.


Cellfire is starting off only in California and only with Cingular - I wish them great success as they release on a broader basis. I like the idea and they have some good advertisers to start. Let's see if they can find the right way to get consumers to adopt the service.

posted by Troy Norcross at 11:36 AM  

1 Comments:

Paul said...

Troy,

Thanks for your review of Cellfire. You asked a few questions that I wanted to take the time to clear up.

1. You can find out about Cellfire through many of our retail locations, you can download it from the search toolbar of Cingular's MediaNet, various download sites on the internet including hellomoto.com and getjar.com, as well as surfing on certain WAP pages. Regarding viral aspects, you can also receive it from the "Share with a friend” feature on the application itself or the web site.

2. We make it clear on our web site that the application is free, but there may be data charges based on your contract. Once the program is installed, the coupons are pennies to download.

3. Scanning an LCD screen is not an exact science. To begin with, you must use a CCD image capture scanner, not the laser based scanners that are ubiquitous in retail stores in the US. Even with CCD scanners, reflectivity and ambient lighting play havoc with the accuracy and reliability of this scanning process. Retailers have installed scanners for a reason – they want fail-proof data entry with minimal training and maintenance. CCD scanning doesn’t fit this bill quite yet, though it is close. Most systems we have seen that can scan cell phone screens are dedicated to that purpose, meaning they are tuned for that particular application including screen orientation, placement, and lighting. Small screen scanning will be a reality when:

1) image capture scanning technology is more mature, flexible, and reliable
2) main stream retailers switch to this technology

When this happens, we can easily switch to bar code screens on a per coupon basis, supporting retailers regardless of scanning technology installed.

Paul Stanley
Moonstorm Sr. Marketing Manager

8:06 PM

 

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A few words about why we're here

Since consumers first started to use SMS marketers have had the idea of text message marekting or marketing sms - also known as mobile marketing. And since that time marketing sms messages have grown and changed and new technology like bluetooth marketing, marketing bluetooth style to phones in close proximity to an advertisers.

And since the e-mail spam scourge took over the media, people have worried that there will be mobile phone spam. Spam is just another way of saying that advertisers send unsolicited text message marketing, marketing sms, bluetooth marketing or any other form of mobile marketing - it's mobile phone spam. There are even guides on how to spam phone s.

Consumer Preference is about permission based marketing, permission marketing solution. If, as an advertiser you can execute permission based marketing campaigns then you can certainly find ways to benefit from mobile marketing. And permission starts with understanding the consumer marketing preference. If you can understand consumer marketing preference, then you can execute permission based marketing. And permission marketing is not mobile phone spam.

There are many mobile marketing company listings that can be found on the Internet - and most mobile marketing company websites will tell you how they focus on permission marketing. Make sure that the one you partner with does more than tell you about it on the website. Opt-in marketing starts with your traditional marketing soliciting for permission.

Yes - Mobile marketing starts with traditional marketing - print, web, radio, television - all of the old standards. Because before you can send the first message to a consumer, you must obtain their permission... and that means that you understand consumer marketing prefernce.

Please enjoy reading consumer-preference.com - and if you feel that there is a point I'm making you'd like to share - then put a link to it from your own site. And always feel free to leave comments!

Troy Norcross

 

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