O2 B2B marketing #fail

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Nico

Here another example of mobile response marketing NOT being properly executed:

I received a text from O2 Priority stating that this is a great service for any business. Good start, sounds interesting, let me click on the link.

Resulting page: screenshot from mobile. This page / site is useless on a mobile device, made for web browsers only, can’t navigate, read or action even on an iPhone 4S.

Web page squashed into mobile device.

Not impressive for a MOBILE operator.

So, O2, get yourselves a decent mobile platform to power your landing pages, and your conversion rates will rocket.

How times change…

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Olly

In preparation for our move to a new office, I have been clearing out my drawers and stumbled across some interesting antiques.

See here a shot of some of the phones which we have used for testing over the last few years. Some of these are particularly old and many are not even WAP enabled.

Old phones great and small

One thing is for sure, there have been some very definite trends over the years to get where we are now. Phones haven’t always been highly polished glass slabs…

Red Bull Stratos: Mission to the Edge of Space

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Olly

OK it’s not mobile related, but it is supremely cool…

A few years ago (7, to be precise), the folks over at Red Bull decided to form the Red Bull Stratos team. Their mission: to complete a stratospheric freefall to expand the boundaries of human flight. What this amounted to was a freefall from 120,000 feet during which the jumper would break the sound barrier. This is something which has never been achieved by a person without several millions of pounds worth of machinery around them.

Exciting stuff. No one is entirely sure what the effect will be on the jumper or his suit once he breaks the sound barrier. Assumedly the team behind it don’t believe that it will cause any problems, or else he wouldn’t be doing it…

After years of planning and lots of money spent, in just a few short hours, Felix Baumgartner will be jumping from an open capsule in a custom space suit some 23 miles above the surface of the planet. You can watch the whole thing live on the Red Bull Stratos website. I recommend you do, it’s going to be very cool.

Make sure you check out the site. If viewing on your phone, they have a very good mobile site also!

Er, Houston…..we have a problem….

Affordable Home Ownership Awards 2012 – KODIME client wins

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Andrew

And the winner is …….A2Dominion New Homes. Congratulations!

Beverley Davey Marketing Manager of A2Dominion New Homes received the Award from Brigitte Koepke, Director of KODIME Ltd.

The Affordable Home Ownership Awards 2012 hosted by the comedian Ed Byrne took place yesterday in London. A fun event celebrating the innovation and good practice achieved within the affordable home ownership sector. KODIME sponsoed the Best Digital Marketing Award for a unique application across any one or more digital platforms that provide the customer with excellent information on their enquiry, a good user experience and ease of navigation. A2Dominion New Homes won the award for their iPhone and Android mobile app. Please download the app to see for yourself. The independent judging panel of experts commented: “Demonstrated good range and depth of digital activity all aimed at improving and easing customer experience.”

Also shortlisted were our clients Notting Hill Housing Group with their development “The Meadows” which extensively used mobile marketing to connect and engage with the target audience. The judges comment: “Good creative design and lots of overall campaign objectives. Made good use of a range of digital mediums.”

Well done to all shortlisted, and of course especially to our clients, well deserved!

The Meadows

Shortlisted for their marketing tools across a range of digital media was FIRST STEPS. FIRST STEPS is delivered by two of London’s largest housing providers, L&Q and Metropolitan Home Ownership. The judges commented: “FIRST STEPS clearly stated objectives and results as well as demonstrating some good new functionality”

Well done to all shortlisted, and of course especially to our clients, well deserved!

QR code use up 43% in the UK

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Olly

Don’t know what a QR is? Now you do.

According to a report by comScore, 3.3 million consumers scanned a QR code in Q2 this year. That is a 43% rise from last year. That works out at 11.4% of all smartphone users.

QR code use in the UK is still lower than the rest of Europe, who have been quicker on the uptake when it comes to QR, but it is certainly the case that they are being placed in more and more places. There are some good uses of QR codes evident in the UK also, particularly in estate agent windows where each property information display can be scanned to view the property, and more photos, on Rightmove.

With much discussion around NFC and how it can revolutionise content delivery and, in particular, payment, it should not be forgotten that at this point in time, QR codes are far more established. Along with SMS they are a powerful response mechanic which can help digitise banners, leaflets and flyers.

Like this article? Why not give these a read too! Not sure how to run your QR campaign? Here are some tips or NFC is still having some troubles getting off the ground…

Apple’s big announcement

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Olly

So last night Apple unveiled, to the surprise of no-one, the new iPhone. It will be called the iPhone 5 and the first 2 things to note are this:

1) This will affect none of the apps which we have in the market so far except that they will be displayed with some black bars to deal with the new size. No changes required!

2) Let’s all be thankful they didn’t go down the iPad route and just call it ‘iPhone’, it saves a lot of confusion in conversation…

Otherwise, the news which Mr Cook and Co and delivered was surprising for one main reason; there was no real surprise. For perhaps the first time for an Apple product launch, most of the details of the new iPhone had been leaked well in advance of the show and generally they turned out to be true. Personally, this took some of the shine off of what is normally a secretive and exciting reveal.

The new iPhone 5

There are many talking points which I could pick up on but the one main decision I was surprised by was this; the decision to not include NFC in the phone.

Now NFC has hardly taken off in a big way. It is more prevalent in the US, but certainly in the UK it is still not really possible to pay with a single tap in too many places. However, this was Apple’s chance to change that. Apple are all about seamless processes and NFC is certainly made for that. This was Apple’s chance to bring NFC to the fore and be the first to include it in a useful and intuitive way. It may be that Apple don’t think NFC is ubiquitous enough to include in their new baby and it will appear next year, but by that stage they will not be a leader in the area, someone will have gotten there first.

This is equally as bad news for advocates of NFC, as inclusion in the iPhone is a sure fire way to bring new technology to the mainstream. All in all, it was a disappointment to see Apple not take on the challenge and include this new technology into their flagship product.

Having said that, it would still sell like hot cakes even it was made of cardboard and paper clips.

One Google search uses more computing power than Apollo 11

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Olly

Make: NASA, Model: Apollo: 11, Processor: 40Khz, Memory: Rope

It can sometimes be easy to forget how far technology has evolved over the last few decades. Younger generations growing up no longer see devices like smartphones or tablets as amazing, they are part and parcel of life in the 21st Century.

However, this blog post from Google shows exactly how far technology has come! Going in to space is complicated, right? Takes a big ‘ol powerful computer to get men to the moon. Definitely. Except, it didn’t. As it turns out, a single Google search today uses more computing power than the entire Apollo 11 mission, and then some:

It takes about the same amount of computing to answer one Google Search query as all the computing done — in flight and on the ground — for the entire Apollo program!

Sounds crazy but it’s true. Let’s not even get on to the fact that the guidance system was made up of rope weaved by old ladies…

More than 60% of the apps in Apple’s App store have NEVER been downloaded

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Olly

A recent report showed that around two thirds of apps in Apple’s app store have never been downloaded!

It particularly highlights the plight of independents releasing apps, which are rarely found as they don’t crack Apple’s top apps lists, on which a lot of credence is placed.

This is not necessarily a problem for Apple, who will continue advertising the fact that the App store contains more apps than you can shake a stick at, but it might be the sort of stat which puts some people off working on smaller, often innovative projects.

We are pleased to say that KODIME apps are firmly NOT in the 400,000 apps which have never been downloaded…