Jeremy Martin, 3Cinteractive’s Senior Vice President of Business Development, was a panelist at SFIMA’s “Moving Into Mobile” event. In this clip, Jeremy talks about the ubiquity of text messaging, the mobile web, and how enterprises are able to extend their existing CRM applications and platforms into mobile as a way to immediately reach their consumers.

Here, Jeremy speaks on how enterprises can utilize mobile to increase efficiencies across all aspects of business. Jonathan Stephen, Manager of Industry Initiatives for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), follows up on how mobile enhances customer relations and retention, replacing certain functionality to improve the consumer experience.

As a reminder to our standard rate clients who may be running a contest or a sweepstakes, following is the verbiage required on a “Contest Rules” or “Sweepstakes Rules” page linked to from the mobile program page of your website:

• The dates of the contest/sweepstakes must appear
• The date of drawing must be indicated
• The method of entry needs to be specified
• Eligibility should be detailed
• The age of the contestants and any age restrictions must be noted
• A description of the prizes.

Note: be sure to confer with your legal team or sweepstakes administrator regarding the complete legal requirements for your mobile program.

Please note that Revol is no longer supporting Premium-rated programs. This includes all existing and new premium programs. It’s not anticipated that this will not have a serious impact as Revol primarily services parts of the Midwest and the Northeast.

Please contact your Account Manager or 3Ci Support for more website requirements and compliance information.

We have evolved from the Brochure Revolution, where if consumers wanted more information on a product and/or a service, they had to get in their cars and physically go to the retailer or dealer for more information. In the late 1990’s, we evolved to the Desktop Revolution, where consumers were able to getting information from retailers from the comfort of their homes and were eventually able to purchase items right from the web as Internet speeds increased.

Today, we are experiencing the Mobile Revolution, wherein consumers expect a mobile web experience that renders on their handset. To that point, consumers are and will continue to be frustrated by retailers who do not offer a correctly rendered mobile experience. The key is to offer your customers an integrated solution that includes mobile web (mWeb), SMS, and in some instances a native mobile application. If consumers are becoming more mobile, they need to be able to reach you at a moment’s notice and you need to be able to reach them instantly to drive traffic (to either your storefront or your mobile website).

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AC Growth Blogs
Mike Cooke
April 27, 2010

Over the past several years, we have seen the Mobile Marketing space grow with many companies entering the mobile marketing SMS (short messaging services) space. Being a mobile platform or mobile marketing company is a lot more than just saying you have a mobile platform or service — there are a number of areas and expertise that a company needs to offer beyond just features and functionality in order to support a client in launching a mobile initiative, such as: working with government agencies, producing and providing documentation to wireless carriers, managing compliance, as well as providing 24×7 client and technical support.

One such company, 3Cinteractive (www.3Cinteractive.com), with close to 100 clients, is a pure-play mobile platform firm. Unlike other companies who are just getting into the mobile marketing arena like Exact Target and Lyris (and these companies do offer outstanding capabilities in email automation and marketing), 3Cinteractive’s entire focus is helping their clients grow revenues and cut support costs. Clients like Walgreens and Cracker Barrel are showing real business results by developing a relationship with their clients through something that is always with them — a mobile phone.

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eMarketing Mobile: Tapping Into Mobile’s Power and Reach

The mobile phone that nearly every American carries with them every day—and the common text message technology that you use to communicate with your family, friends, and peers—is causing disruptive changes in this post-DTC age of pharma and healthcare. Just as the Internet changed the way business communicates and distributes information and the way the public consumes it, so the widespread adoption of mobile device technology and text messaging has stimulated a similar monumental shift in consumer behavior.

If you have children, you probably already know that text messaging is not something that “only kids do.” If you don’t have children, consider the fact that the fastest-growing age demographic of SMS (a commonly used acronym for text messaging) users in the U.S. is 50 to 64 year olds (Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, December 2007). Additionally, a 2009 Limbo report showed that 50% of SMS users in the U.S. are 35 and older. For 25 and older, that number jumps to 75%. The bottom line: all of your end consumers are text messaging.

Solving Business Challenges

“Until recently, SMS didn’t carry a connotation as a tool that solved business challenges. But once businesses understood the immediacy, reach, and cost-effectiveness of SMS, they began to realize the potential it can have within their everyday operations,” states John Duffy, founder and CEO of mobile platform provider 3Cinteractive. “SMS provides the most ubiquitous and effective way to reach consumers. Every phone in the U.S. today is capable of sending and receiving text messages. We make it easy for pharma and healthcare related businesses to tap into mobile’s power and reach. We make the barrier to entry very low for our clients.”

3Cinteractive, which helps companies develop and deploy mobile initiatives, experiences firsthand the powerful and immediate impact mobile campaigns can have in healthcare. “We developed SMS-based applications with a major pharmaceutical manufacturer that deliver a rebate coupon for brand-name prescriptions to a consumer’s mobile phone while they are at the pharmacy counter. This rebate can be redeemed right at the point of sale, helping pharmaceutical companies extend the revenue streams on brand-name drugs and stem the consumer shift to generics,” says Duffy.

“Additionally, we’ve deployed a mobile messaging solution for a national healthcare staffing company that allows them to reach out to their completely mobile workforce of 70,000 nurses instantly to notify them of staffing openings and important job-related updates. It has completely streamlined their staffing communications and driven down costs dramatically.”

mHealth Initiatives

The focus on mHealth solutions using mobile phones goes beyond mobile and healthcare-related businesses. CTIA, the non-profit wireless advocacy group that represents all sectors of the wireless industry, has engaged the U.S. government directly to help facilitate the adoption of mHealth initiatives by hosting mHealth policy forums. These forums allow government officials and wireless industry experts to work together to promote mHealth solutions that significantly drive down healthcare costs and increase the efficiency of delivering healthcare.

3Cinteractive is CTIA’s exclusive mobile technology partner, helping educate and inform the healthcare industry of the benefits associated with implementing mHealth strategies. “The cost reduction we have seen by deploying SMS applications in hospitals and medical centers is significant,” says 3Cinteractive’s VP of Industry Relations, John Styers, who works closely with CTIA on mHealth. “Reliable data is starting to surface showing that SMS applications have significantly increased patient compliance with drug and medical device treatments. This not only improves patient health, but drives down the costs associated with non-compliance—which are estimated to be $100 billion annually in the U.S.”

Considering the strong national focus on reducing healthcare costs, and the demonstrated ability of mobile messaging to not only reduce costs but also improve the effectiveness of delivering care, a perfect storm is brewing around mHealth. And the device that you carry with you everyday in your pocket might alter the healthcare
landscape forever.

This article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of PM360.

Striking a balance between high impact marketing campaigns and carrier compliance can be difficult to achieve. You want to go mobile, you have to go mobile, but you don’t know how to go mobile. Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone — 3Ci’s years of experience in the mobile ecosystem helps companies like yours use mobile to market better and smarter. Our upcoming webinar will share techniques for marketing more efficiently and effectively using mobile technology.

Topics include:

     · Strategies for mobile marketing
     · Tips for maintaining compliance with the carriers
     · Interactive marketing techniques to generate leads efficiently and inexpensively

Webinar Details
Learn how to take advantage of mobile marketing to develop high impact campaigns that won’t have a high impact on your budget.

Date and Time
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 2:00 PM EST

Duration
45 minutes with question and answer session (30 minute presentation with 15 minute live Q&A)

Who should attend?
Anyone who wants to take their business mobile. No technical experience required.

Speakers
Presented by Jeremy Martin, VP of Business Development and Jeff Michaud, VP of Marketing and Creative at 3Cinteractive.

Technical Requirements
Internet connection and phone line or computer speakers.

Cost
Complimentary (with access to a downloadable archive version after webcast).

Registration
You can register for this event online. We look forward to your taking part.

October has been a busy month with regard to mobile compliance. While some of these changes were announced earlier this year most went into effect this month. One of the biggest changes came from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and its new guidelines. The MMA revamped the guidelines (please note: you’ll need Adobe Reader in order to view the document) to help ensure a positive user experience for mobile users. Additionally, the version 4.0 guidelines are the first to consolidate the individual mobile marketing guidelines and codes of conduct — known as “carrier playbooks” — of the four largest U.S. wireless service providers: Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), and T-Mobile USA (NYSE:DT).

In addition to incorporating carrier standards, the updated guidelines include revisions and additions to key areas such as:

• Standardizing the messaging language to a universal “Message and Data Rates May Apply” phrase (with Msg&Data Rates May Apply, Msg&data rates may apply, and Msg&data rates may aply [sic] as acceptable variants);
• Allowing for more flexibility with PIN location in message-terminated (MT) messages; and
• Modifying the STOP requirement in Opt-in MT messages.

Also of note was a change at one of the major carriers, Verizon Wireless. Verizon updated its best practices and instituted a new Repeat Offender Policy that became effective Thursday, October 1, 2009. Verizon has also updated its Advertising Disclosure Requirements (these updates are effective Sunday, November 1, 2009) for all new program submissions, on-boarding / certification, and monthly monitoring efforts.

Joining the MMA and the carriers is the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA updated its Guidelines for Ethical Business Practices to incorporate mobile marketing, stressing the need for prior consent to marketing communication that is business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B), the use of appropriate suppression files such as the Federal Do-Not-Call Registry, and for members to abide by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).