Watching TV tonight, BBC Food promoted a specific recipe by using a QR code on screen. A quick scan takes you directly to the recipe you’re looking for with a full list of ingredients. Now that’s good use of a QR code to replace what would otherwise have been a very long-form URL.

Smart move BBC!

You know me, I love nothing more than a good ol’ rumble around the web, so when I came across some more tasty stats that didn’t agree with each other, I had to bite. Bango and AdMob both released recent figures for their top 20 handsets and there’s a Grand Canyon of difference in the top 3.

Granted there is a fairly straightforward explanation for this variation; AdMob, as an ad network, has been one of the chosen ad providers for many iPhone app developers, who choose to monetise their apps through advertising.

No Monopoly, Apple

What is enlightening however, is that the iPhone and iPod Touch don’t feature at all in Bango’s top 20. As a more representative sample of the mobile web than AdMob’s figures, it’s fascinating to see that a phone as basic as the Nokia 3110 Classic tops the chart. This is 2009. Weren’t we supposed to have hover cars, food in pill form and travel to the moon by now!? Yet a phone with less features than my microwave tops the chart with over 12% of the traffic to cross Bango’s service.

[Tangent alert] Before anyone crucifies me, I believe older phones have some wonderful benefits. My favourite phone of all times is probably still the Nokia 6100, which was small enough for me to mistake it for some futuristic pill form food and had about a century of battery life. (Ok, only slightly exaggerating) I’m a big fan of the iPhone, not so much of second-rate touch devices like Nokia’s 5800, but I try to be fair and give each and every new phone a chance first. [Tangent over]

Part of the appeal of the mobile web as opposed to apps is that, generally speaking, it’s much more accessible from a wide range of devices, without device, geographic or network limitations. But speaking to a number of smaller mobile website owners, it seems everyone’s missing a trick.

Stats Geeks Wanted

On desktop, most of us have caught on to Google Analytics and use it regularly to keep an eye on the ups and downs of our website. On mobile? Tumbleweed in most cases! Sure, Google Analytics and others aren’t suitable for mobile, but there are options. In fact, Bango’s mobile analytics service is not only simple to use, but has an admin area that rivals desktop packages.

Weirdly, these analytics could just as well be used on a desktop site. What, do you really think you don’t have a single mobile visitor to your desktop site? iPhone and other higher end phones will cope with Javascript (necessary to make a mark on Google Analytics, for example), but the majority of the devices listed on both AdMob and Bango’s top 20 won’t even register on your stats.

Personally, as a marketing gal and stats geek, I can’t imagine why a marketing manager wouldn’t want to improve reported numbers just by adding a new set of analytics. It ain’t cheating, it’s just usefully flagging up users you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

Fly Me To the Moon

So while there are heinously bad phones out there *cough* motorolaimlookingatyou *cough* and site developers who forget that not everyone’s interested in a big Flash animation welcoming you to the site, we just can’t deny that it’s slowly becoming more or less enjoyable to browse the web on a phone, so it’s worth supporting that through good mobile design and smart tracking of what users coming from phones rather than 24″ screens get up to.

As far as I’m concerned, you’ll only find me browsing on an iPhone, since I’m not yet quiiite satisfied with touchscreen alternatives out there. Of course, I’m a willing guinea pig… at least while I wait for my brain implant, jetpack and weekend ticket to the moon.

[Disclaimer: Taptu and Bango are both clients with whom I work on community development. As for Apple and AdMob, I'm merely watching them evolve with great interest.]

Yesterday, however, was an insightful (and social) day for me, spent at Future of Mobile in London. Future of Mobile is in its second year, organised by the great team at Carsonified. I did a dreadful job of tweeting or blogging the event, being far too busy buzzing around chatting to new people, but many others did a stellar job of documenting what turned out to be a very interesting day.

During my presentation at FOM, photo by Rudy de Waele

The very lovely Tom Hume (who’s excellent presentation teased us all with colourful macaroons right before lunch) posted his review of the event earlier today. Helen Keegan, fellow blogger and geek gal, shocked the crowd with her “There is no future to mobile” (your faces were all priceless when she stated that), James Whatley was (as usual) the most energetic body in the room and – at the risk of potentially getting an ass-kicking for saying this – the younger share of the speakers did a rather stellar job at keeping the audience awake and interested.

I was asked for the slides to my 6 minutes presentation on Why Community Matters throughout the day, so as promised, here they are. (And thanks to Carsonified for being mad enough to let me loose on stage)

In summary, I think we all agreed that we’re looking at a fragmented, young and constantly evolving industry and there’s a whole lot of work to do in order to get to a stage where normobs can really make the most of the technology that’s racing ahead, in terms of accessibility, simplicity, pricing and education. But without a challenge, what fun would it be!?

Some more coverage of the event:

• Andrew Grill‘s “The Future of Mobile is…”
• Jonathan MacDonald‘s “Every Single One of Us” was an excellent thought-provoking presentation
• Dale Zak‘s coverage of the event on Ideas 2.0
• I hear official footage of the event will be released soon, but in the meantime, you can catch Tom’s presentation thanks to the Vimeo video Ribot captured from his front row seat.

It all begins at 6:45pm at the New Oxford Street All-Bar-One, and even though over a hundred people have RSVP’ed as attending, I’m putting money on it that there’ll be at least twice as many phones and mobile devices than people. Yes, we’re geeks. And we love it.

And then, tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to Social Media Cafe aka Tuttle Club for a bit. It’s at the Coach & Horses on Greek Street in Soho, so again, if you’re around, why not pop by?

I’ll be posting updates on Twitter so if you want to meet up, drop me a tweet!

Little Peps grows up

Last week, Pepsmedia became Pepsmedia Ltd. Sure, in practice, it’s just a piece of paper and a few quid less in my pocket, but in my mind, it’s the beginning of great things to come. By no means is everything going to change overnight, but I’ve realised how passionate I am about blogging and about giving a step-up to those around me who would benefit from blogs or social media as a tool to promote whatever their passion is. My dad was a high school teacher, and I suppose this is the teacher in me coming out. I love seeing others succeed, like a proud parent wiping a tear during their daughter’s first school play.

For this reason, I’ve started offering my services more actively as social media consultant. If you or your company need to find your bearings in social media, a week-long crash course or a day spent sprucing up some stunning ideas you’ve had might be the step-up you need.

Hello?? I’m on the phone!!!

I’m always surprised anyone still wants to hear me talk, since they usually can’t shut me up, but last week, it’s with great pride that I accepted a spot as speaker at Future of Mobile, a Carsonified conference, in November. I’ll be there alongside some fantastic speakers and fascinating people so if you work in or are interested in mobile, I hope to see you there.

Gobsmacking stats

Following last month’s letter in the pond going a bit viral and stepping on PR people’s toes with my open letter to public relations agencies amongst other things, my stats have gone through the roof.

A little bird tells me that my Wikio rating isn’t so bad next month either. So whether you’ve just popped your head in for the first time, or have been a long time reader, thank you for being here.

Guest writing at Enterprise Nation

Nothing excites me like talking about watching budding ideas turn into real life projects, and I shared a few thoughts on working with remote teams on Enterprise Nation, a site filled with valuable resources for those planning their first personal business.

The home office takes shape

A few weekends ago, we attacked a mountain of build-it-yourself shelves and desks from IKEA, making sense of some of the space we have in the house. To complete my newly refreshed office, I bought a fabulous poster from Tim Walker at the Design Museum Shop, which I thought was just gorgeous! The perfect girly touch now that I’ve kicked Andrew out of the room.

Four years of marriage

On July 8th, Andrew and I celebrated 4 years of great times together! I’m blessed to have found such a great life partner, who also makes a great business partner. Every day I think of how lucky I am, and hope we can be as happy as both his parents and mine are after many more years!

What now?

Ok, I’m getting unbearably gushy, so I’ll stop here. But one final thought… As a child, I used to think that if you got too happy on the inside, it was possible to explode. I guess I’ll be finding out soon whether you do blow up from enjoying your life too much over the next few weeks, if things continue at this rate. Even the weather’s been playing along these days, what more could a girl ask for!?

Like Ben, I sat in front of my MacBook watching MacRumors, TUAW and Cali Lewis liveblog and report on the Keynote. Unlike Brian, I wasn’t mad (or privileged) enough to attend the Keynote at the Moscone Center, in SF.

Keynotes are a bit like circus acts. The event is rehearsed to the second, we all watch and wait with bated breath for the grandiose final scene, wondering whether anyone’s going to fall flat on their face along the way. While the keynote was light on substance, the short of it is the new iPhone hardware includes 3G, GPS, and there are a number of software changes – MobileMe particularly appeals to me.

However, the biggest change isn’t in the physical device. It’s all in the perception. Last time around, Apple was looking for early adopters, geeks and IWOOTs* to test-run their product in a giant, live usability testing session. Now that they’ve been able to watch us use the device, it’s time to reach out to the normobs with lower upfront costs. While the tariffs are still in the upper end of the scale, unlimited data makes it completely worthwhile.

As an existing user, I’m grateful that under O2′s reign I’m not given the “brand new customers only” treatment. I can upgrade without getting stung for breaking my contract. All first generation owners shedding their skin in prep for the Second Coming means there’ll be a number of orphaned first-generation iPhones floating around. Mine, for example, will most likely find a new home with my father-in-law, Roy. I’m curious to see what the trickle-down impact of giving second hand iPhones to unlikely buyers like Roy will have on the profile of future buyers.

I think Apple will continue to own marginal marketshare, because the iPhone remains too expensive, too complex and too closed for most, but it’s about to take a significant leap ahead. Are you jumping with me? Or kicking back and shaking your head at the fangirl* that I am?

[* Def. IWOOT: "I want one of those", otherwise known as saddos like me who can't resist the latest gadget, even at exorbitant prices.]
[* A fangirl who began supporting Apple back in 1986 when it definitely wasn't cool to own a Mac!]

[Cross-posted to the Taptu blog]

“What teens like online and on their phones”
Panel of teens from age 11-17, based in the Austin area and of different levels of interest in technology, music, etc…

sites teens like
goodreads.com: book reviews, allows them to check reviews and know they’ll like it before they buy it (since they can only buy so many…)
purevolume.com: unsigned cool bands to check out
MySpace, Facebook: Own mark on the site, cmn w friends & family (but not mom) after school
Using FB to stay in touch w friends, only uses it bc there’s critical mass of friends on there
Digg.com to stay up to date w things like games news (Halo 3, Sports games)
12 year old says she’s 16 on MySpace, boy says he’s 99
Mixmatters, music site w latest stuff before it goes out
Seventeen.com but not totally happy w that site
Hipster.com music playlists ppl who aren’t quite famous
Runescape, game, chat to people and meet them on myspace

What turns you off about websites?
Too much advertisement about “free xbox 360″ but all i want to do is watch my video
Advertising also slows down my computer
NBA.com has ads for Miller between every video
MySpace profile “invaded” with a virus, sent innappropriate videos
Clear issue with ads that stop the flow of activity
Heavy pages with too much content and too many ads, page takes too long to load

Social networking fatigue? Do you think so?
Used to check every minute, looking for more friends on FB, but once all friends got added, the bulk of it is done, not much else going on.
MySpace, all have accounts. FB about half of them

Use email more?
Email address was created FOR myspace, but already aware of the need for different email addresses for different things.
Contacting teachers to ask for homework help
Already have a concept of “professional” email address, importance of proper writing and correctly written emails

What kind of phone do you have? Is that the phone you want/would like to have?
- Doesn’t have a phone
- LG Music phone, unlimited SMS and uses it a lot, plays Tetris a lot, can’t get to the internet on her phone, its too expensive, but friends sometimes share ringtones by bluetooth
- TMob blackberry pearl, loves email, sends him MySpace msgs, uses SMS lots, gets ringtones from friends and creates his own, no internet on his phone (too expensive)
- Mom gave her basic phone but its never charged, only meant for emergencies, isn’t allowed to use for anything else
- Old phone, broken in his pocket, makes calls/receives, SMS, really basic. Emergency games in case he’s too bored but would like better phone, but as long as it works…
- Sony slidephone. Likes the slide. Listens to music on her phone, chats on the phone, but doesn’t like SMS or use it much. Likes a few games
- (Girl in pink) LG cameraphone Uses SMS but has a limited number (150ish), has ringtones at $3 a piece, Tetris $5, doesn’t download ringtones or wallpapers, cant afford it anymore. Uses camera a lot, sends the pics to other ppl.

Few watch video
Think they could mostly cope without except for 2

Virtual worlds, creating avatar-based social network sites. Do you go to virtual worlds?
Runescape
Xbox live, no avatar but can play against ppl
Zwinki
Runescape, Gaia but Pay-to-play is really dying, it’s not popular anymore
Zwinki requires acquiring points and stuff and i just wanted to customise my avatar

Creating videos, do you do it?
- In the backyard, used Windows Video Maker, think it’s pretty cool, would prob do it again
- If I had a camera, I probably would
- Have a camera but never made it by the deadline to send in videos, it’s pretty cool, likes the idea of her video possibly being used

Do you like the brand more if they do this kind of thing?
Pink one htinks she’d respect the company more for doing video competitions for thinking that you’re able to do it too (knowing marketing is hard, creative)

Digg for news on war in Iraq, youtube, etc (yikes!)
The Onion catches their attention

Needs to be funny, different angle
The news are too dead and dull

None of them go to CNN or NewYorkTimes

Do you (and how) do you take part in causes?

Answering questions in exchange for grains of rice to 3rd world
Donation services from the school, selling cards for charity

Would like to do things physically in-person for some
Others prefer the game aspect of the grain of rice quiz
Things that are easy to do make it easier for kids to help from home in their pyjamas. People want an easy out to feeling they help

TV shows…
Family guy
Hannah Montana
History channel (Future weapons)
Veoh for new eps of stuff they missed
Disney channel, watch Cody on the Disney website
Wrestling (tend to watch live)
CSI (watch live)
Kyle XY and Wildfire must be watched live
Love watching anime, but use reel.com and others to try to find the ep asap online if missed
Spanish dramas and telenovelas

Projects designed to try to break advertising campaigns: Would they push back on advertisers to get them off websites?

They understand that advertising funds the websites and allows them to get stuff for free. Don’t mind ads if they’re contextual and relevant (shoes, not beer) Keep the advertising on sites where you’re actually trying to purchase something
Please don’t make it like teh Futurama ep where they broadcast ads to Fry’s sleep

Brand microsites, flash games, miniclip?

Addictinggames.com
Home computers tend to be too slow to play them properly, would probably play them if they didn’t have such PoS machines
Like to play games when they’re at school and done their work, uses it all the time
Each one of them played games on their phone before panel started
Newgrounds.com, ebaumsworld, albinoblacksheep
They love flash games, they know how to unblock websites at work

More notes here: http://www.ianschafer.com/2008/03/08/from-sxsw-what-teens-want-online-on-their-phones/

Sitting in my parents’ living room in Canada, I’ve seen just how much unrequested mail they receive, flyers from supermarkets and furniture shops to clothing and hardware stores. Each one is filled with “50% off” claims and coupons. It’s a quaint tradition that is now being shoehorned into new technologies like mobile.

Mike writes about it saying that marketers tend to think of the mobile as a fantastic advertising medium, “always on, highly person, uniquely identifiable users”. That much is true, isn’t it?

“So I end up reading about things that the folks in the industry generally tend to term “The Starbucks Example”. It’s the example where a service could somehow figure out you’re near a Starbucks (whether it be location based services or some kind of near field communication system like Bluetooth) and push you a coupon (”RIGHT THEN!”) for 25 cents off your latte. [...] How often do I really want 25 cents off my latte? Is it really worth all the other junk I get in return for it?”

While maybe I’m more of a sucker for Starbucks than Mike may be, in theory, I can quite comfortably see a Bluetoothed voucher for 25p off a latte cause me to detour towards the overpriced coffee store on the way to my destination. However, it’s an extremely slippery slope, and encouraging Bluetooth marketing exercises would probably result in a heavy influx of untargetted marketing messages to my phone, which I definitely would not welcome.

Coming from an email marketing background, I know quite how poorly some “marketers” can choose to understand data protection and user privacy, giving themselves artistic license over what “opt-in” means. Carlo also echo’ed my suspicion that too often, bluespamming is so untargetted that it gets a very poor conversion. So let’s scrap Bluetooth marketing!

An unprompted SMS is even more invasive than Bluetooth marketing, since it can disturb me during a much needed holiday nap, so that’s out too.

This leaves us with user-initiated promotion. This is like the mobile equivalent of double opt-in in email marketing – Far tougher to achieve user participation but cream of the crop conversion rates as a result, since you’re only reaching those who are actively showing interest. The best example I can think of for this is Orange Wednesdays, a promotion that’s been running successfully for over 3 years, launched by Orange and Flytxt in the UK. Orange customers get a 2 for 1 discount on movie tickets on Wednesday nights, feeling they’re getting a great deal at 50% the usual ticket price, while cinemas get a fresh influx of visitors in an age where the big screen is suffering from lower footfall every year. Brilliant deal!

Using a word which needs to be texted to a shortcode is a reasonably low-effort option for the mass market, while QR codes scanning is only a suitable solution if uber-nerds are the target market. Ask anyone else what that stamp-sized black and white garble means and you’ll get an uninterested shrug.

The bottom line is that it’s got to be simple and non-intrusive, something that not all marketers can achieve successfully!

What are some of the best mobile marketing campaigns you’ve seen? What’s the wildest ideas you’d like to see using mobiles? At what point is a discount, a promotion or an incentive good enough that it should be allowed to interrupt our life?

By the same logic, I almost always say that the more technology, the better. Almost.

Today’s an exception. This is my plea to the RAC, once my most reliable source of up-to-date traffic news, to step away from the Flash animations and return to this old technology called text. The wonderful thing about text is that it’s clear, succint and doesn’t require any fancy plugins. It’s easy to use when on the road with only a phone at hand.

This new animation completely fails from a usability point of view:

1. It doesn’t respect the KISS rule: Keeping it simple means it’s more widely accessible. Not everyone has Flash enabled. My iPhone certainly doesn’t. :S
2. It’s utterly useless to someone who isn’t local. Very few cities, towns and villages are identified, no matter how close you zoom in. Why aren’t the primary non-motorway roads identified? It’s certainly not because the map is too cluttered!
3. The usefulness of the information displayed is questionable, especially in comparison to the detailed alternative that used to be available. Is the slowdown due to sheer traffic density or are we dealing with a 6 car pile-up where the motorway might get closed? That’s far more likely to affect my decision of what to do next than telling me vehicles are travelling at 10mph.
4. The colours, which represent severity of traffic, aren’t accompanied by a legend, so the user has to guess what the scale is!

With the holidays coming and more people on motorways driving long distances to see family and friends, it can be a lifeline, helping us make a quick decision on whether a detour is needed. I’m afraid that the RAC designers didn’t do their homework here. Back to the drawing board, guys!

[Crossposted to the Taptu blog here!]

But for now, let’s celebrate all the good stuff:

1. We’re picking up the kittens, Jack and Rose, tonight. Can’t wait!
2. I’m definitely getting an iPhone. On launch day. You just try and stop me now!
3. I’ve booked my ticket to Future of Mobile conference in London. See you there!
4. Google IMAP has been enabled on my account. Sweet!
5. Leopard is still perfectly smooth and functional and lurvly on my MacBook. Rowr!
6. Even my lunchtime sandwich from the crummy vans outside was reasonably good.

Let’s all bask in the positiveness for once, because you ain’t getting this on my blog again anytime soon.*

[* Note that this post is not even fuelled by cheekily swiped Halloween candy. I haven't had sugar yet. Really!]