Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

RecreateMyNight is a new service that lets users collectively reconstruct and relive the concert experience using social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It harnesses lifestreaming behavior to generate content around past events.

When fans log on they will see a dashboard where they can click on any concert night to view its recreation or add more media. The website is an advanced social media platform providing users with the ability to view and add content such as video, photos, and status updates. As they travel the country, [a] band will be growing its digital scrapbook by inviting fans to log on and share media.

Yesterday, we saw how text messaging has acted as a "connective tissue for society" during World Cup games. Given the permanence of digital content, we are able to then look back and replay conversation around a given match. Mobile users are actively collecting photos and video during live events in order to remember later.

Today, that content doesn't just sit at home, it is published on sites like Facebook and Flickr. Last fall we observed how concert-goers often waited until the next day to upload and share videos on YouTube. This creates a new morning-after primetime and a behavior that services like RecreateMyNight and SuperGlued bank on.

There is huge potential for brands and artists to participate and enable users in this space. Orange presents a great example with GlastoTag. They provide a 1.3 giga-pixel photo of the crowd at Glastonbury Festival and encourage users to "get tagging," or pinpoint themselves and friends in the masses. From there, Facebook integration helps spread the word via users' social graphs. This lets festival participants relive and remember the experience while also bringing Orange some love.

• TV Everywhere may not be anywhere until 2014 | Blog | Econsultancy - Cable television companies are getting excited about a web push to put all of their content online for subscribers. Called "TV Everywhere," the endeavor will make many television shows available online for free to customers who pay for cable on television. But getting all the major players to cooperate on this project could take quite some time.
• Washington business improvement district goes mobile | Mobile Marketer -Just in time for the area's Restaurant Week, Washington’s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District launched its new mobile Web site to help smartphone users navigate the busy area of the capital including finding places to dine.
• 3banana partakes in mobile giving using social networks | Mobile Marketer 3banana Inc. has launched a “Share to Win” contest to help nonprofit organizations spread their message and have the chance to win $10,000 in donations. The strategy behind the contest is to have nonprofit organizations use 3banana’s notepad application and spread their message virally via Twitter, Facebook and mobile email. The organization with the most votes will have a chance to win one of five prizes totaling $10,000 worth of donations.
• Smartphone Apps Fuel Business - WSJ.com -More firms are turning to apps to enhance the way customers interact with their products and services — and even boost their bottom lines. Said one expert, "People nowadays want everything to be at their fingertips, and if companies are not finding ways to provide these tools [they] will soon see drop-off from their customers."
• Orange, Vodafone Push Mobile Social Networks | mocoNews - Orange just rolled out Social Life in the UK, an aggregator that lets users post to their social networking profiles and send messages via the Orange World mobile site using one login. Meanwhile, Vodafone may soon be rolling “Vodafone People,” which organizes users’ contacts and messages across mobile and PC. And it’s not just for Vodafone users, but people on 247 networks.
• Study: Over 8 Percent Of American Households Use Mobile, E-Mail Coupons | mocoNews - The majority of shoppers still get their coupons from Sunday newspapers, but more than 8.9 million U.S. households—or just over 8 percent of the total population—receive coupons via text or e-mail, according to new stats from Scarborough Research. The typical mobile/e-mail coupon user is young (14 percent more likely to be aged 18-24, than average), educated (51 percent more likely to be a college graduate or have an advanced degree) and decidedly female.
• Discovery iPhone App an Early Hit | Contentinople - Acting on their  strategy " to have as many touch points to our fans as possible," Discovery Channel released a new, free application for iPhone and iPod Touch users. It has fast become a success with more than 180,000 downloads just one day after it hit the app store.
• Jay-Z's Favorite New Rapper: Free Music Is The Future | Techdirt -
  Breakout Rap star Wale was quoted as saying, "Free music is the way for the future. To get your music off the ground you've got to give it away for free at first." Now he's Jay-Z's favorite rapper and doing collaborations with every top name in the industry.

• The Real-time Web: Sifting Required | GigaOm -  With the constant stream of status updates flowing on the web, it can be easy to miss the stuff we care about. Facebook and Twitter have yet to figure out how to help users easily scan the glut of news streamed in real time without missing information from earlier that they need or want to see. This influx of status updates often results in a series of disjointed conversations that lack context, making it hard to piece together and decipher what it all means.

The Digital Age Is Stamping Out Serendipity [NYTimes]
The "group-think" of web 2.0 filters and vets information in a way that eradicates fortuitous discovery, a key ingredient of creative  inspiration. While some software developers are trying to recreate it (see StumbleUpon and UrbanSpoon), their algorithms rely in high-tech crowdsourcing that doesn't quite solve the issue.

Tweeting, Texting Render Avid Users 'Present Yet Absent' [USAToday]
Are we paying more attention to our mobile phones than the world around us? Some say that smartphones are breeding an "absent presence" that  has us disconnected from human interaction, driving us towards a "post-human world."  Psychologists worry that all this multi-tasking doesn't allow us to relieve our "cognitive load."

MSNBC Mobile Video Views Grow 207% in Four Months [FierceMobileContent]
Four months after the launch of MSNBC's mobile video platform, usage has increased by 207% and more than half of those who watched MSNBC video claimed that their handset was their primary source of news.

Nanovor, a New Game That Will Lunch on Kids Everywhere [Technomix]
Think Pokemon meets Spore, Nanover could be the next kid craze. Combining social networking and gaming elements, the game lets kids collect virtual pet/bug things (Nanovors) that live online and on a dedicated mobile device.

JetBlue and United Give Twitter a Try to Sell Airline Seats Fast [USAToday]
JetBlue has been tweeting customer service for awhile, now the airline is using Twitter to promote deals and cheap flights (called "cheeps"), along with United (called "twares"). With one tweet, airlines can sell out top deals in real-time, much faster than an inbox-cloggign email promotion.

Web Chat Cited as Preferred Query Channel for Gen Y [Travolution]
In a YouGov national survey, 20% of 18-24 year olds claimed they would use expert chat services to get info about an online transaction. The average for all other ages is 13%, showing that online trust and integration is significant for Gen-Y.

Track Home Burglers from your Mobile Handset [Mobile Industry Review]
Services like Y-cam and Peepr are transforming phones into full fledged home security devices. Users can stream video of their houses wherever they are and even receive emails when the camera detects movement.

Smartphone Sales Up, But Mobile Startup Funding Down [GigaOM]
For the first half of 2009, smartphone sales have been booming but money for mobile start ups hasn't been following. Investment is going to more companies, but the total amount is down when compared to 2008.

HPV Vaccination Reminders via Mobile [CScout]
In order to be sure that patients follow strict vaccination routines, groups like Sanofi Pasteur are sending out vaccine reminders via text.

“Big is Easy, Small is Hard”: Print is Mobile [BBH Labs]
ScrollMotion, a New York-based iPhone app developer, is creating a suite of new tools for traditional print media companies to better engage their readers via apps on mobile phones. Their reader software allows publishers to animate content, flipbook-style, and accept third party advertising.

Teens React to Online Warnings [BBC News]
The archbishop of Westminster criticized social networking sites for teaching teens an erroneous sense of friendship. Teens' reaction? Meeting someone in the streets or through friends is the same thing as meeting them through Facebook.

Where Blyk Went Wrong With Ad-Supported Mobile [AdAge]
Hopes that an ad-supported mobile phone could one day become a big business have been dealt a blow with news that Blyk, the highest-profile experiment in that model, was being rolled into the UK's Orange network. Despite positive response rates to ads, the MVNO just didn't achieve the scale to survive.

Building A Real Mobile Web [A VC]
To make the mobile web as popular as the computer web, regulators need to think of the mobile more like a PC and less like a carrier offered service.

Twitter Redesigns As Streaming Trends Site [ReadWriteWeb]
We've seen a number of real-time search engines built on Twitter (Collecta, OneRiot, Scoopler), and now Twitter itself has redesigned it's homepage with search and trending topics front and center.

Mobile Music for Teens Who Top Up [BBC News]
Orange, Universal, and Channel 4 are partnering to offer a music streaming service, which it hopes will combat piracy. Dubbed "Monkey," it's specifically aimed at teens--there's no data plan, smartphone, or payment plan required. Instead, Orange has teamed up with Blyk to send users free offers and promotions based on their tastes.

Can a 'URL Killer' Save Our Text-Weary Thumbs? [AdAge]
Garrick Schmidt contends that flurry of new QR code activity from cultural tastemakers and media platforms alike may finally push the barcode into the mainstream. But we wonder whether the OEMs need to preload handsets with a reader before these "URL killers" get true mass adoption.

Surge In Mobile, Online Banking Sparks Closures At BofA [mocoNews]
Bank of America is closing 10% of its U.S. branches because of mobile and online banking. Customers have been increasingly accessing and using the mobile service for more than just balance statements, reducing activity in many branches.

Power to the People Survey [Universal McCann]
Data from Universal McCann on how people use the Internet to share with others. Key stats: 76% of SNS users upload photos, 62.5% of all Internet users have created at least one profile on a social networking site, and mobile Internet usage has reached 1/5 of all Internet users.

Could Twitter Become a Commerce Pulse by 2012 [InfluxInsights]
Twitter's evolution is up in the air, but there is potential for the service to become an on-demand product and service provider. Tweet about needing a plane ticket? Get airlines to bid with their best prices.

How to Build Social Capital - Innovate Early and Often [The Steve Rubel Lifestream]
Brands are competing to develop a strong and respected online presence, but following what is being done will not put you ahead of the game. Acting, instead of reacting, is key to innovation for brands online.

Is Being In the Mobile Biz License to Ignore the Internet? [Searchblog]
With Apple banning two Google apps (Latitude and GVoice), the iPhone platform is still suffering from restrictions that prevent it from becoming the true link between mobile and the cloud.

AT&T Aims To Increase Data Usage With New ‘Social Net’ App [mocoNews]
AT&T has rolled out an app called "Social Net" that offers non-smartphone customers a solution for connecting to their favorite social networks.

Free Gifts to Students Who Agree to Receive Ads on Their Mobiles [The Guardian]
Orange is launching a plan that will give concert tickets, accessories, and even bill discounts for 16-24 year olds who receive ads on their phones ( in form of texts and market surveys). The carrier hopes to attract more of Gen-Y, by going to their interests...and their wallets.

Camera Phones Can Help Diagnosis [E-Health Insider]
Camera phones can help doctors understand certain conditions a little better. By taking a picture of a visually apparent condition, users can offer doctors ways of knowing how the condition evolved and what it might be.

Pedal Power for Kenya's Mobiles [BBC News]
Two Kenyan students have developed a way of charging cell phones with bicycles. Looking to market the idea, the use for it in many countries around the world in undeniable, further integrating mobile into daily user life.

A Statistical Look at Urban Indian Mobile Users [Priyanka’s Blog]
Key mobile data from one of the largest mobile using nation. Noteworthy: Orkut is the favorite social network accessed through mobile, 45.6% use Google mobile, 86% have participated in SMS contests, and Internet and SMS are the two main factors in choosing a carrier in India.

Mobile Coupon Users Want More Junk [Marketing Charts]
New data from the U.K. takes a look at what mobile coupon users prefer to see when it comes to mobile ads. 30% said they don't enjoy drink promotions, 76% thought the redemption process was easy, and the whole survey was done via SMS.

French Government Building a Mobile Portal [Mobile Industry Review]
To offer all citizens access to public and general services, the French government is launching Proximamobile. The idea is to offer a mobile portal of applications and services for the public at large, developed by the community.

Well, That's the End of Flip: iPods to Get Cameras [Fast Company]
After the announcement that the iPod Touch will get a mic so it can call, it seems that other basic functionality of cell phones are coming to the whole gamut of iPods.

Twitter Takes a Step Toward Commercial Accounts [NYTimes]
Twitter released its Twitter 101 web pages and slideshow to show how businesses can profit from the service. It's a first step in eventually creating business accounts that will offer more features than normal ones and help Twitter monetize.