Mobile coupons are gaining acceptance more than ever, and it’s due in large part to companies like CellFire that manage large-scale deployment of digital coupons to the masses.  CellFire in particular is setting the standard with it’s mobile application that gives the user an endless variety of savings that can be redeemed instantly, and are always available.

A user can simply access the cellfire app and search an ever-changing inventory of available coupons.  No need to clip coupons, or remember to check a website or an email before you go.  Since the coupons are updated and accessed in real-time, there’s no need for text messages as well.

CellFire is close to introducing a brand new service called Mobile Grocery Coupons, which will be a service that’s integrated with major grocery store chains to offer special discounts and content to customers in real-time.  According to their website…

“…Cellfire’s mobile grocery coupon service will provide shoppers at major grocery chains with exciting exclusive discounts directly using their mobile phones and grocery savings cards. Many consumer brands are already on board, including General Mills, Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark. We will be announcing the program launch very soon…”

The app runs on almost every phone made, and with several carriers.  It looks like they’re trying to incorporate their technology into other uses like the grocery store example which should prove to be interesting.  As customers become used to the savings and ease of use of the loyalty programs and other features the cellfire system provides, they’ll be more apt to continue shopping at that particular chain.  The marketing potential is huge on several levels.

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Tellabs has produced some mobile commerce videos if you haven’t seen these. In fact they launched a totally separate new website.

Honestly, I didn’t even know Tellabs was in the mobile space, did you? I know Tellabs from my job. At one time we distributed their equipment but it’s been a while, a long while in fact.

When Verizon did my FiOS install a few Months ago they terminated to a Tellabs Ethernet Media Convertor on the side of my house. So, chances are if you have a FiOS connection you might also have a Tellabs box bolted to the outside of your house. It’s a Fiber in Ethernet out device.

I found the series advertised on RCR WN. They shoulda just YouTube`d these things instead of paying advertising dollars to get the word out. Anyhow, here they are.

1. Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul Part One: Where Are We Now.
2. Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul Part Two: The Evolution and Promise.

You’ll also find a bunch of mobile podcasts and videos on the site too.

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Amazon did. I haven’t made a purchase yet (I tried) but I started looking at the service tonight by Texting 245BW to 262966. Read the rest

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Lots of folks already blogged about the pizza hut mobile site launch today so I’m not really looking to jump on that meme. What I haven’t seen mentioned though is the strength of Pizza Huts’ recent online marketing efforts. Somewhere near the end of August Pizza Hut dropped the hammer on papajohns.com and by the end of the Q4 there was considerable distance between the two which had been running stride for stride nearly all year.

Pizza Hut doubled their visitors in 2007 according to compete.com.

What’s going on with subway.com? Whatever Jared is doing for Subway it’s not translating to online traffic. Subway is totally flat against their pizza counterparts… perhaps it’s not a fair comparison on my part? I think it is. Subway kicked off a mobile campaign not too long ago; I wonder how that’s working out for them.

The Subway website just seems like a real Jekyll and Hyde. They’re not sure if they’re offering franchise details or sandwiches. Too, the Subway website needs a remarkably severe makeover… a kick butt UX for consumers not potential franchisees. I’d take all that franchise information and shove it all under a separate corporate services website. Go compare the PizzaHut.com site to Subway.com. SubWay isn’t in the same user experience ballpark is it?

Papajohns.com is promoting mobile right on the home page and I’m willing to bet that’s paying off. How do I know? I don’t have specific knowledge of how it’s actually doing but sites with over 1M visitors per month don’t slot considerable sized promos on the home page if they’re not delivering.

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Generation Y will dramatically change the face of retail marketing over the next 10 years. Bold statement right? Not really if you ask me, folks in this generation are totally at ease with mobile technology and it’s their goto method when they do just about anything which increasingly includes shopping.

If you missed it, Jayne O’Donnell wrote a featured story on mobile shopping this past Wednesday in the Money section of the USAToday and it heavily focuses on how this younger generation is routinely turning to their mobile device as a primary method for their shopping needs. Go read it and you’ll see that this demographic is all over mobile things such as:

• mobile coupons
• text ads
• mobile search services
• cellfire
• NearbyNow
• slifter

NearbyNow is a unique mobile marketing service that the teens and twentysomethings are totally into. This 40-something gets it too. I used it this afternoon during my nutty Christmas shopping adventure. The shortcode for the mall I was at is CU to 632729 (lookup your shortcode). Within seconds I received a menu of options, I wanted to see Sales so I Texted back the sales option. Again, within seconds I had a few Text messages that listed all of the stores that had listed Sales within the NearbyNow system. I texted back the Disney Store option and received yet another text listing:

• Tinker Bell Fleece $10, Reg. $17
• Pooh Fashion Sweater $15, Reg. $20
• My Size Jasmine Plush Doll $23, Reg. $30

That’s mobile marketing folks and it’s how the up and coming generation is getting things done right now. Go read the USA Today article, Jayne writes about how the teen and the parent will both shop at the same store except they’ll use completely different methods. The teen or digital millenial as Laura Evans calls em, is all about using mobile services while the parent is not.

I receive the offline version of the USAToday and this story in the offline version has a graphic that illustrates a JupiterResearch study which indicates that teens are twice as likely to use their mobile device for Texting and other non voice related applications, this illustration doesn’t appear in the online version of the story. Not sure why but it’s important because that’s the shift that’s taking place in how consumers shop.

Oh, and I opted into the NearbyNow future sales list for this particular mall. That’s more mobile marketing because the system they are using is proactively looking to add users to their database. It was double opt in which means I agreed to join the list and then had a second confirmation. That’s the approach you want to take help keep a clean list.

If you’re a retailer and want to implement a campaign like the one I mentioned above, touch base with any of the mobile marketing firms that I’ve previously covered, they’ll be glad to assist you with your mobile marketing campaign. The mobile marketing companies listed in the top of the grid are all hyperlinked.

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I just got finished reading this story on the Register about SMS enabled solar powered parking meters and how stealing money from parking meters is going to be tougher now in Eastbourne because the meter knows how to send an SMS meter in distress alert to the police department. Additionally, the device will let a meter attendant know that it needs to be purged of coins.

That’s a clever use of the technology but I’ve got a much better idea, one that eliminates the possibility of theft, the need to have coins collected and also turns the pricing model on its side by using dynamic pricing.

How? Let consumers start and stop the meter by using their mobile devices and replace the pay per minute model with demand based per minute pricing. If the meters are all mobile enabled devices capable of conducting a transaction then a central database knows what the inventory of available spaces looks like throughout the day… if the lot is busy guess what, the prices go up because available inventory is scarce. Conversely, when the lot is slow prices are reduced to incent consumers.

Crazy?

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IntoMobile sez, “Say What”? Looks like IntoMobile was one of the first to report this too, it’s been 2 hours and they’re still the only story on Google News when searching for GPay, it’s also on TechMeme. Here’s the Patent Application.

I included legal on the tagging because I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this one.

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