Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

On the heels of several big announcements from new Foursquare partners, the New York Times says they are launching our first integration with Foursquare this Friday for the Winter Games. According to Jenna Wortham on their Bits Blog:

In conjunction with the Winter Olympics, The Times will be offering recommendations to Foursquare users on restaurants, attractions, shopping and nightlife in Vancouver, Whistler and the nearby town of Squamish. The tips will be pulled from The Times’s travel and entertainment coverage.

Foursquare users who check in at one of the suggested venues will earn a New York Times Olympics badge, said Stacy Green, public relations manager for The New York Times Company.

“Going forward,” Ms. Green said, ”we are looking into other ways we can work with Foursquare in New York and other markets to integrate our strong travel and entertainment content.”

Ms. Green tells us the Times believes this partnership "will be a great way to bring useful Times content about Vancouver and Whistler venues to Foursquare users."

There are several other mobile components to this effort. Times mobile users can sign up for text alerts for medal count per country and medals awarded per sport, according to Ms. Green.

To sign up for all medals awarded for countries of choice:
Text MEDALALERTS [country] to 698698. E.g. MEDALALERTS USA

To sign up for text alerts to receive a message when medals are awarded to the sport of choice:
Text OLYSPORTS [sport] to 698698. E.g. OLYSPORTS Figure Skating to 698698

Alternatively, users can go to mobile.nytimes.com/smsalerts with a mobile phone to signup, though they will need to login with their New York Times ID.

If you just want a single update without signing up continual alerts, they are adding a one-time request option: Text OLY to 698698 to request the latest 3 Olympics headlines from The New York Times.

There is also a BlackBerry shortcut for the Olympics (pictured at top) available for download from mobile.nytimes.com. The shortcut will live on the user's homescreen (like an app) and take them directly to the sports sections of the Times' mobile site.

SMS is becoming a primary platform for everything alerts and reminders. Safelincs, a UK based fire-safety product supplier, has teamed up with TextMagic to provide a free service to their customers, reminding users when they need to change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. This was only made possible through TextMagic's extensive set of APIs.

Our mobile phone remains the best way to be reached at any given moment (besides places like NYC's subway system or while up in the air). This is why everything from Google Voice to sharks in Western Australia provide alerts using SMS.

Read more about TextMagic's system here.

[via mobilemarketingwatch]

Short messaging services have found a variety of use cases around the world and even in outer space, but one destination that still proves difficult to find connectivity is deep inside Earth's caves. While cell phones and walkie-talkies don't work underground, one teenager from New Mexico has invented a device for cave-texting, 1,000 feet under.

Why is the ability to communicate that far below the Earth's crust so important? For one, emergency rescue time can be cut in half. It took 170 people four days to save a woman from a 1991 New Mexico cave rescue, after laying miles of telephone line for keeping in touch.

Another reason that this technological discovery is worth noting is the interest shown by scientists. Microorganisms that produce antibiotics cannot be properly studied with the presence of an actual human being. The concern is that people contaminate the sensitive cave environment just by being there. Connecting data recorders to Kendrick's radio could let scientists transmit data to the surface for further examination.

As in other situations where mobile technology has enabled more efficient communication, Alexander Kendrick's cave-texting device may have just opened up a whole new world of opportunity.

[via npr]

Last September, author Tomi Ahonen gave a talk at PICNIC Amsterdam about the future of mobile. Before discussing ideas available on his blog, Communities Dominate Brands, he jokingly presented a method of determining mental age, using text messaging behavior.

The scale ranges from being a texting-fluent teenager, to being clueless and over 60 years old.

Teenager: Able to carry a conversation with your girlfriend or boyfriend on one phone, and at the same time with your best friend on the other phone.

Twenties: You can easily take  your phone out and send messages with out looking at it.

Thirties: You make use of a QWERTY keyboard. Send a lot of messages.

Forties: Okay with sending and receiving text messages, but your messages are very short. 'Yes' or 'No' responses.

Fifties: Able to read text messages but don't send them. You call back instead.

Sixties: Your phone annoys you. You take it to your child and say, "It's doing it again. Can you make it stop, the stupid envelope blinking?" You do not know how to read a text message.

Where do you place?

The ringtone business is beginning to slide, research firm IBIS World reports that Americans are going to spend $131 million less on cell phone ringtones this year than they did in 2007.

The culprit? Text messaging. Over the past two years the average number of text messages sent has increased by 266%. These devices are being used less and less for voice communication and more for SMS, Twitter, email, social networking, and a slew of other applications. This is exactly why people need to steer away from the training wheel term 'mobile phone', as it assumes devices' primary function is as "an instrument of sound transmission or reproduction."

IntoMobile points to politeness as an explanation for this rise in text messaging. It could also be privacy. When on a date, in the theater, or on the subway you don't always want people to overhear your conversation. SMS on the other hand is both private and transcends time. Responses can be made whenever is most convenient, making real-time conversation not so popular which renders ringtones useless.

At PBR New York, bull riders had to survive eight seconds for their ride to be scored.  That means in a two hour event there are about five minutes worth of action that you need to pay attention to. Throw in the obligatory B-squad country band and there’s about one hour and fifty minutes of downtime.  The PBR has filled some of this with something worthwhile.

As fans are usually bound to their seats, they’ve taken it as a marketing opportunity with their partners.  Garth Brook’s charity TeamMates for Kids shows a two minute video of what the charity’s work is and then offers fans the chance to text in a donation.  Ford’s Invasion of the Bulls contest follows a similar track and allows three fans to win a Ford F-150 Super Duty and a trip to the Invasion of the Bulls event in Las Vegas.

Win a truck or help kids in need, both are good uses for SMS technology.  I surmise that the participation for these campaigns is pretty high, considering that the average fan is just waiting for the next ride. Something similar garnered the Capital Area United way $8,550 during a single LSU-Auburn game and of course the Alicia Keys Keep a Child Alive campaign by Mobile Accord. These success stories go to prove that observing a users' context, even downtime, can provide opportunities for constructive mobile marketing.

Remember the toilet that tweets? Well maybe researcher Seth Hardy was onto something when he jokingly conceptualized it. Scientists in Western Australia have tagged over 70 great white sharks for a trial that will send beach lifesavers a text message when one gets too close to shore. We've seen plants and appliances join the internet of things, so why not animals? With this creative application of SMS technology, life guards now have a new form of ambient awareness, a spidey sense that tingles when danger is near.

[via textually]