WHATS ALL THE HUB BUB… BUB?

Well, lets share some data from previous months about the consumption of mobile.

• Analysts at market intelligence firm IDC claim that more than a billion mobile devices were connected to the Web by the end of 2010. That’s close to the predicted number of Web-connected PCs, at 1.3 billion.
• Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Mary Meeker predicts that within five years more users will tap into the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs.
• IDC also notes that the growth rate of mobile devices is 2.5 times higher than that of PCs.
• Predictions are that 300,000 apps will be available for the iPhone by the end of 2010, along with more than 50,000 through Android.
• A survey of more than 50,000 European and US mobile users conducted by The Nielsen Company on behalf of Tellabs indicates that 71 percent anticipate they will use the mobile Web daily over the next two years.
• US consumers will explore the mobile Web, while European countries will lead with MMS.
• eMarketer estimates that mobile ad spending, including messaging-based formats, will reach $416 million in 2009, increasing to $1.56 billion by 2013.

We know, we know…. Many times before it’s been said that “this is the year for mobile marketing,” but really 2010 is THE year.  Between the near ubiquity of the iPhone, the new kid on the block, the Android OS (available on multiple carriers) combined with Adobe’s next version of Flash supporting Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Palm’s webOS and RIM’ BlackBerry platforms, we’ve reached the point where mobile is not only feasible, but practical, cost effective and really important.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO FIRST?  MOBILIZE YOUR WEBSITE.

You company may or may not directly benefits from developing Apps for the various smart phone platforms like the iPhone and Android, but you can certainly pick up a few points with your customers by mobilizing your website.  What this means is taking part or the majority of your existing website and converting it for easy access for mobile devices.  

After you have completed the mobilization of your website, its time to move on to the questions of iPhone and Android Apps to help you promote.  We’ll cover that topic in a later post.

Making your website mobile enabled is like telling your customers that you want to work with them in any way that they see fit.  More and more e-commerce systems, content publishing systems, blog software, etc. are beginning this process.

THE BIG OFFER TO MOBILIZE YOUR WEBSITE

Between now and March 31st, 2010, Right Here Interactive is offering clients the opportunity to mobilize their existing websites or as part of a redesign program at substantially discounted rates.  Please contact us for program details and pricing.

One of the features of the commenting tools is the ability to assign “administrators” who essentially can maintain the comments from people (basically, they can delete objectionable comments should they choose).  The way you do that is by providing a list of Facebook User ID’s.  But how do you find a person’s Facebook User ID?  Well, it’s a little complicated, but it can be done.  See the video below that explains it.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Need help building custom Facebook Apps.  Contact us today….

Today…. more often than not, a website is a generalized snapshot of your business (it may even be a snap shot of your business 2 years ago).  Unless you are selling products online, then chances are your main www site is (dare I say) “brochure ware.”  That term not only shows how old I’m getting (since we first started using it in 1997), but it means that its a boring “me too” platform for information on your business.  There are so many variables to consider with websites (design, target audiences, balance, search marketing, content strategy, etc.), that you can quickly find yourself in a traditional style, with a traditional presentation of your content.  That’s okay for the main website, but it leaves real opportunity to get a wow factor from your audience and get them engaged enough to inquire, register, buy or even evangelize your brand.

Micro sites on the other hand quickly get to the point, often a more flashy way (pun intended).  Many micro sites incorporate a whole lot more graphical effects (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and even HTML5) combined with video that simultaneously give them pop while brutalizing their chances of being search engine friendly (its a trade off).

Done correctly, micro sites inform and engage your audience about a specific product or service that you have or are launching.  They’re often more effective becasue they have that focus and speak to the target audience very specifically with calls to action that lead the way to sales, registrations and inquiries.  But how do they do this?  Well, lets take a look at a 2 examples….

GOOGLE DEMOLITION LAB (http://www.google.com/demolab)

Oh boy, this site is fun for people who need to get a little anger out.  It’s probably the most simplified interface of a micro site I’ve ween yet.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate that Google Netbooks store information in “the cloud” so you need not worry about backups if something happens to the physical machine.

THE SIZZLE: When you land on the page, it just is one big picture of the netbook with a tag line by its side.  The sizzle is in the little pop-up virtual attendant that asks you how you you would like to see the Netbook destroyed.  You can type things in like “heat, drop, mace, ninja, dynamite, car” and probably man more (i’m sure I found only a few) and watch a short video clip of that operation being implemented on the netbook.  My favorite was when I typed in “woman” and it…. well, just type it in.  It was funny.

The intuitive nature of the virtual attendant (who is of course not really a live person, but rather a program that recognizes words you type in) makes you want to keep trying, it makes you want to tell people (in addition to this blog, I’ve shown about 12 people and posted to my Facebook wall).

POGUE-O-MATIC (Link)

An agency partner of mine just turned me on to this site a few days ago.  David Pogue, the New York Times tech columnist created this little gem of a micro site, that’s actually embedded inside the NY Times site.

PURPOSE: Pogue-o-matic is a product selection tool for cameras, camcorders, smart phones, & TV’s.  David starts off by introducing himself and the concept in a fun, light-hearted manner.  He then asks you to select what kind of a product you want to find and from there, each product type has a series of questions that slowly whittle down the different products that are floating on your screen.  From the first screen, if you make him wait, it’s knd of funny.  he talks on his phone, checks his watch and stands rather impatiently for you to choose (for about 4 or 5 minutes).

THE SIZZLE:  What, you can’t tell?  It’s David himself that is the real sizzle.  It feels like you are getting a personal tour through his electronic landscape and in the end you feel happy that you did and get great information on dozens of electronic products.  The site is so simple to use and yet, it has stickiness (you can find a camera today and a TV tomorrow).  It’s a great resource for non-technical people and I’m certain it does well for the Times.

BOTTOM LINE

Micro sites can really be effective in launching or promoting a particular product or service.  They can wow your audience not only to inquire and purchase, but evangelize (the golden egg of marketing these days) your brand and the site itself.  Micro sites use many of the same technologies that websites do, but do so in a more creative and compelling way.

Feel free to give Right Here Interactive a call to discuss your ideas for your micro site.  We’ll help you not only to build a killer platform like the ones you see above, but also to get the word out with interactive marketing promotions that bring the visitation and most important the conversions you want.

The second part… the viral marketing aspect seems to be the golden egg of social media for marketers as a whole.  Don’t we all just think how great it would be if everyone around the Social sphere would just tell everyone else about how great we are?  Maybe it would lesson the burden of our jobs and  improve the outcome of our campaigns.

But I digress, the real question at hand is about who is on Facebook and what do they want or need.  Well, here are a few statistics I’ve pulled from recent months you should consider.

QUICK FACEBOOK STATISTICS YOU SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW:

• According to Facebook themselves, there are more than 750 million active users of Facebook worldwide, with more than 375 million of them logging in every single day.
• There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
• According to Comscore, Facebook represents the largest share of time spent by US internet users of the top five most-visited websites. Facebook increased its share of total US internet time 71% between December 2009 (7.2%) and December 2010 (12.3%).
• Almost three in four (73%) online US consumers have opened a Facebook account. Sixty-five percent are active Facebook users, and 42% are fans. The fan percentage rises to 64% among Facebook users.
• Local businesses make up 17.6% of Facebook fan pages, according to financial services firm Wedbush, while companies come in at 6.3% and products at 3%. Interests, musicians and public figures are also high on the list.
• 34% of US social network users told ROI Research they were at least somewhat more loyal to brands they were fans of on Facebook.  At least half said they had become more likely to talk about, recommend or purchase a company’s products after they began following the company.  FYI – Twitter actually edged out Facebook in this study.
• According to the “American Millennials” survey, conducted by Barkley in advance found that over half of millennials (ages 16 to 34) liked checking out brands on social media sites. Nearly one in four millennials (23.5%) interacted with content from a brand’s Facebook page at least once a daily, vs. 17% of older adults who did the same.  Millennials were also 4.4 percentage points more likely to interact with brand content between one and six times per week. While similar shares of both age groups interacted at lower frequencies, overall older adults were nearly twice as likely never to engage with brand content on Facebook.
• A report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that of the adults who use the Internet, nearly two-thirds use social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. That’s up slightly from a year ago.  Among Baby Boomers aged 50 to 64, 32 percent say they use a social networking site on a typical day. That’s up from 20 percent a year ago.
• According to data collected in January 2011 by Lucid Marketing, more than nine in 10 moms use Facebook (93%) to communicate.
• More than 40% of social network users told ROI Research that brands should communicate with fans only once or twice a month, and another 26% thought weekly communication was sufficient. Only 10% of respondents wanted to hear from brands at least daily.
• Fifty-five percent (55%) of Facebook users have liked a company and then decided they no longer wanted to see its posts. The most-frequently cited reason Facebook users give for “unliking” a brand is that it posts too frequently, according to a report from ExactTarget and CoTweet “The Social Break-up.” 44% of Facebook users list this as a top reason for unliking a brand they once liked on Facebook.  Virtually tying over posting, 43% say the brand has an overcrowded wall. Other leading reasons include content becoming boring and/or repetitive (38%), and only liking a company to take advantage of a one-time offer (26%).

What do all these stats mean?  It appears that consumers engage brands on Facebook, but there is a fine line to walk before you scare them off.  Controlling the Facebook experience your fans get from you is your #1 priority.

So what is immersion marketing anyhow?  No, it’s not about bungee jumping into water, but if you’re involved in sports marketing, resort marketing, eco-tech marketing or just want people to really understand your product/service and get excited about it, then immersion marketing should be in your marketing mix.  So let’s dive right in and discuss it.

My team at Right Here Interactive and I started working on a highly targeted and VERY specific microsite for a sports teams roughly 2.5 years ago (check out our clients area on the website and request access to our Private Portfolio to see specifics).  This was a collaborative project between a few specific companies providing specialized services and an example of Right Here Interactive’s “Engagement Marketing” philosophy.  Our mutual goal was simple…. Help “fans” to see what it’s really like to play for the teams.   It was quite a challenge as it turned out.  How do we get the fans to really feel like they are there, grid iron, on the field, in the locker rooms and working with the coaches?  I won’t go too far into how we accomplished our goals, but we did so well on the first project that we brought on 3 other teams who wanted to accomplish the same thing.  Today, Right Here Interactive specializes in bringing what are typically live experiences as close as possible to fans, prospects and customers.

Typically, the end result of the Immersion Marketing project or campaign is a piece of content (what we term a “property”) that is viewable by the world at large and gives them deep and memorable resonance to your products and services.  Typically, this is not your main website, but rather a “microsite” (a website with a specific focus on a product or service line, targeted to a specific audience and generally for a limited period of time).

Immersion marketing really is interactive marketing with the specific purpose of stimulating the senses with imagery, video and special effects that make the experience inviting, exciting & sticky.  It’s usually meant to augment or completely replace the act of visiting or viewing something in its natural, earthly form.  Immersion Marketing can be used in many ways including:

• Giving that behind the scenes look at a sports team’s practice, operations, athletes, coaches, etc.
• Wetting the appetite of viewers of a particular destination and all of the amenities.  Think Sandles, ski resorts, Yoga studios, Gyms, holistic health care and so many more.
• Ride along with X-Games athletes and their sponsors on events and concepts.  Check out what Shaun White did with Red Bull called Project X.
• Experiencing the storyline, characters and behind the scenes information of an upcoming or current feature film, TV show or other movie.  Saint’s & Soldier’s did a great job.
• Showing the mechanics and operation of a solar farm, wind farm, energy appliance or renewable resource project.  We did a partial immersion project called GBN in early 2010.

The ultimate goals for immersion marketing is to:

1. Have people understand what you offer/sell in a way that is memorable.
2. Create excitement & interest.
3. Get people tweeting, facebook posting and generally evangelizing your property.
4. Keep them coming back for more
5. As always, get conversions (sales, leads, registrations, etc.)

The Bottom Line

Immersion marketing projects and campaigns show a visitor (with as much visual stimulation as possible) how great your product/service/team/location really is in a way that makes them want more and want their friend’s and peers to want more as well.  They can yield huge results in product sales, bookings, registrations, fans and more when they are properly planned and implemented.

In later posts, we’ll be discussing what makes Immersion marketing successful, what some of the pitfalls will be in building out and managing your campaigns and how to maximize your return on investment.  Stay tuned for those topics.  For now, your assignment is to start thinking about what aspects of your organization could benefit from a little immersion marketing and what kind of results would make it worth your time and budget.  Then go for it!  Feel free to contact us if you are looking for help.

I won’t go into who I think topped the rankings of Superbowl ads since its done to death in other media outlets, but what I am going to do is chat a little bit about getting to the point with your message to generate advertising recall.  We talk about this subject a lot with Right Here Interactive customers, partners and internally and it’s important to you as marketer to understand the concepts and apply them to your own efforts.

I had no real skin in the game itself since I’m not a fan of either Green Bay or Pittsburgh (although, hailing from Buffalo NY, I was rooting for Green Bay).  So for me, the evening was more about the ads themselves.  I tried to watch as many as I could without being unsocialble to the other party guests and hosts.  One thing kept sticking in my mind, an opinion if you will.  Who… oh who…. will stay on point???

I feel like one of the biggest challenges that advertisers face with their Superbowl ads is “recall.”  No, I don’t mean recalling or not playing a certain ad.  Rather, can the average person recall who the ad was for?  Last year, Justin Timberlake did a great and funny parody of himself in an Ad, but for the life of me, I don’t remember who or what it was for.  If you and I don’t remember who or what the advertisement is for (even if it’s the funniest thing since Caddy Shack), is the ad effective?

Think about how many of the ads you recall not by the advertiser or product, but rather by the celebrity, or the humor behind it, without recalling who the advertiser was.  I’m not saying that this is the case with all of the ads or even most of them.  There seems to be a direct correlation between the amount of effort made to make things funny and recall effect.  It’s a fine line between great ads (i.e. funny, etc.) and effective ads.

On the plus side, even if an ad is super funny or just plain awesome and has a low recall, it may fair well over time as most media outlets are replaying, polling, and talking about the ads repeatedly.  It’s completely free placement and worth a lot to the advertisers.  I mean seriously, how many events have post event polling on how great the ads are?

But I digress, I want to show you who I think did a damn fine job with the balance between funny and effective.  Verizon.  A simple message about how much we all seem to love the iPhone, but now with call clarity.

I really think that Verizon hit the mark in a big way.  It was subtly funny, yet it got its message across as clear as day.  They want you to know that you can actually make calls with their network.  Sure, it wasn’t over the top funny and the closest thing to a celebrity endorsement is their own creation; the “can you hear me now” guy, but everyone who laid eyes on that ad sure did remember it was Verizon.

Verizon really did do a great job making it appear that they are the superior carrier, despite the many reasons guru’s are saying to wait or think twice about switching to the Verizon service early on.  Your humble narrator will heed these warnings and wait (iPhoneless I might add) until the iPhone 5 arrives.

Bottom Line

Whether this year is all about videos, mobile, social media, or web and microsites, you need to keep that balance between creating a viral buzz with your messages and assuring your advertising recall is as high as it can be.  People won’t be re-evaluating and polling how great your spot is after they’ve watched it that first time.

Make it memorable…

Image via CrunchBase

Yep… I’m a “fanboy” of Apple products.  Ironically, I don’t have an iPhone at the moment.  I wasn’t able to make phone calls from my home on the AT&T network with my iPhone when I did have it.  It became too frustrating, so I dropped it.  Even though Verizon is about to roll it out, I’m going to wait until the iPhone 5 releases (hopefully) this summer.

But that’s not what I’m here to write about today.  Today, I want to discuss how amazing the brand consistency is with Apple from cradle to grave.  Last December, I accidentally shorted out the logic board on my Macbook pro.  My experience with sales, support and later on, licensing was so fantastic, I have to share it.

So there I am trying to plug-in an external blu-ray burner to start to export a video project I completed for a client of Right Here Interactive when all of the sudden my Macbook pro shuts off in an instant.  I can’t restart it for the life of me.  “Holy crap, this is a nightmare” I thought to myself.

My first thought was to cry and whine as I thought about the very concept of technical support.  Visions of me on hold for 2 hours to speak with someone in a call center 3,000 miles away.  Ugh….I was not looking forward to it.  But then a smile came across my face.  “This isn’t Microsoft, this is Apple, it won’t be that bad.”

I was right to think the way I did.  I called Apple’s support number and was speaking with someone out in Curpertino, CA (Apple’s headquarters) in less than 2 minutes (Yes, I timed it).  They hooked me up with an appointment for my local Apple store to talk to one of their “geniuses” who would troubleshoot and/or repair my problem.  I had an appointment within 2 hours of the incident (and this was during the insanity that was about 5 days before Christmas).  When I arrived, the store was indeed crowded to the point of having a long line.  I walked up, told them I had an appointment and they let me walk through the rope like a VIP at a hot NYC nightclub.  I actually felt pretty cool (amazing, given the fact that I’m a married dad of a 3 1/2 year old whose life is fairly unexciting).

It only took a few moments with my Genius Frank and he confirmed that my logic board had blown out.  He gave me a flat rate price to send it off and fix it and packed it away for me.  I was sad and grateful all at once.  Frank said it would take 7-10 business days to ship it out to Cuppertino, fix and ship back.  that definitely scared me a bit, but what choice did I have.  Frank also took some time to run me through some of the 3rd party software that they were selling in the store, which led me to daylite, a CRM and Project management system I have since implemented.

So to recap; in the same morning that I blew out my Logic board (completely my fault, not the computers), I called Apple, got an appointment, had the appointment and the computer was being packed up for the same day shipment to be fixed…. oh and on a flat rate fee.  Could it be more straight forward?  Could I have been more satisfied with the experience that Apple gave me?  No and no….

Oh, did I mention that my computer was back in my hands in 4 business days?  Damn.  One last part to share with you.  After I got the computer back working fantastically well and my data in tact, I did run into one small issue.  I sometimes use Apple’s Final Cut Studio for certain video campaigns I produce at Right Here Interactive.  When I opened the video editing program for the first time, it asked me for my license key (somehow, the software must tie the license key to the logic board).  I actually couldn’t find it.  I called support yet again.  I told them I lost it and that I didn’t know what to do.  I had a digital copy of my receipt, which I emailed to the support person on the phone and he promptly issued me a new serial number.  The whole process took under 20 minutes.  Again, just a fantastic experience.

So what did I take from all that?  Whether you are a fan or not of Apple, these guys do an unbelievable job branding the “Apple experience” from cradle to grave.  From online, to retail, the experience is positive, fresh and quite frankly, fantastic.  I am more loyal to Apple now than I was 2 months ago and while there wasn’t really a question about whether my next computer would be (as my friends and several colleagues suggest) “an overpriced computer,” I’ll be a loyal customer and fan for a long time to come.

It seems too often, particularly with tech products that the companies forget that a customer’s experience is judged not only by the purchase, but from the on-going relationship with the customer at every connection point.  How’s your experience with your customer’s from cradle to grave?  Are you like Apple, or like gazillion others that have no real brand management beyond the purchase?  Ask yourself every day where you should be.

Keep it interactive….
Marc Pitre

P.S. – My best to Steve Jobs with his most recent medical leave.

Hashtags or #hashtags are actually pretty simple, yet can appear confusing on the surface.  Here is my interpretation based upon its history (or at least the history that my research dug up) . 

In early 2009, many people found that grouping (aka “indexing”) Twitter messages (or “tweets”) was difficult because there was no simple methodology for bundling them based upon topic matter.  The Twitter community came up with the idea to include hashtags to key words in the messages.  It was as simple as putting a # in front of the words or words you wanted to become “tags” that are then grouped your posts with others using the same tag or tags.  So for example, I could use #marketing as a keyword in my Tweet and that message is grouped with other posts that used the same #marketing tag.  Pretty simple, right?

Once Twitter starting using this method to group, many other tools like Tumblr and Facebook began adopting the idea and its spread like wildfire through the social media space.

SO WHAT’S THE BENEFIT FOR #MARKETERS?

Very quickly after being introduced, hashtags seemed to have become a powerful and free tool for marketers to track trends.  Marketers who love analytics and “trending” will tell you that trending data helps shape messages, targets and campaigns as a whole.

Its still early on, but I found two great sites (http://www.hashtags.org & http://trendistic.com) that index/group content based on hashtags.  You can see how topic matter trends over time and find those that are talking about it. Twitter of course allows you to search by key word itself to find tweets, but it doesn’t do the trending.

I see marketers using these sites in two ways.  the first of course is the data.  Is this topic hot or not hot to the social media sphere at large? Secondly, finding specific people, organizations and sites by reading through the posts related to tags and possibly contacting them about your topic.  Think brand ambassadors who may want to review or in some way mention your company, product or service.

BOTTOM LINE

Social Media continues its evolution with Hashtags and proves yet again that marketers can and do need to implement social media programs into the mix if they are going to stay relevant and in touch with their customers.

The short answer is, that depends on what you are trying to accomplish, but the answer is often Pages….There is a lot of discussion and some misunderstanding about the difference between Facebook “Groups” and “Pages.”  Here is some insight into that.  In short Groups and Pages serve different purposes on Facebook. Groups are meant to foster group discussion around a particular topic area while Pages allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans.

Facebook Pages

Pages are designed specifically for brands, artists, musicians etc. who are trying to get exposure.  There are actually several different types of pages based on what you are (again a band is different than a business, etc.).  For the most part Facebook Pages allow you to set up an area that is publicly viewable, search engine friendly (they can be indexed by the search engines) and in recent months it becoming clear that Facebook is promoting and emphasizing Pages more than Groups.

The great part about Facebook Pages is the potential viral loop you can create on an on-going basis.  Individuals with accounts on Facebook can become “Fans” of your Page (or more specifically what you page is promoting).  Pages are easily searched for in the Facebook search feature and if they get enough fans can be indexed by the search engines.

When someone becomes a fan, your Page’s Wall updates get fed to your fans own walls.  This is double exposure; your fans see your Page updates on their wall and the Fan’s friends also can see the updates and in one click, become a Fan too.  More fans equal more fans.

You can create a Page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

Facebook Groups

Groups are great for promoting and exchanging ideas.  Groups follow a similar model to what we commonly think of not-for-profit groups or non-profit charities where there are “officers” and “members.”  This is in no way to say that you need to be a nonprofit.  Quite the contrary, anyone can create a group.  Groups on facebook also have “Admins” who have certain technical rights over the group.  The person who creates the group is automatically an Admin.  Within a Group, an Admin can create one or many other Admins, Officers and can approve membership (if the group is closed).

Groups can be open, closed or secret.  Open Groups: Anyone can join and invite others to join. Group info and content can be viewed by anyone and may be indexed by search engines.  Closed Groups: Admins must approve requests for new members to join. Anyone can see the group description, but only members can see the Wall, discussion board, and photos.  Secret Groups: The group will not appear in search results or in the profiles of its members. Membership is by invitation only, and only members can see the group information and content.

From there, a Group can choose whether certain elements of the groups are available or not.  For example, Group Discussions, News, Events, Posting Links (hyper linking), Photos, Videos, etc. Groups have a lot of control over their content.

While a group update doesn’t appear on the Wall of their members, it does have the ability to send up to 5,000 emails to members of the group.  This is a great way to drive repeat group visitation and participation.

Bottom Line

Now that you’ve read a little bit about the differentiation between Groups and Pages, you can take the next step and analyze what your objectives are.  Once you have those stated, you should be able to determine which works best for you.

Oh yes, please:

• Join our Facebook Group Interactive Marketing with Video and Social Media.
• Become a Fan of Generating Demand with Video & Interactive Marketing clear (we don’t actively use this in favor of our group).

In the App itself, there is a 360 Tour of the prius cabin with little feature pop-ups, a game where you try to direct airflow on the outside and the most important part and the one emphasized in the App, the Interact function.  It’s pretty cool the way you take a picture of the ad and its visual conversion of the page, but in the end, the Interact function simply redirects you to various mobile formatted web pages and videos in your Safari browser.  While I was a just a bit disappointed at the end user experience, it gave me a big wow factor on the unique blend of interactivity and tracking ability of the promotion itself.  It’s taking the idea of customer engagement and conversion tracking from offline to online in a whole new direction  I found multiple conversion points.

1. Conversion Point 1.  downloads of the App?  That’s a given.
2. Conversion Point 2. Engagement. Once I took the picture of the App and played with it a bit, it directed me to a mobile formatted landing pages.  At that point, Toyota has determined that I engaged an Ad in Entertainment Weekly or at least that ad.
3. Conversion Point 3. Web Engagement.  Using a pURL (personalized URL), Toyota was able to tell how engaged I was on the web browser.
4. Conversion Point 4.  Next Steps.  At this point, you can find a dealer and of course fill out forms.

A lot of work and forethought went into designing and developing this unique App.  I give toyota a lot of props for their marketing innovation.

BOTTOM LINE

I think this is a preview of what’s to come in the world of ‘App 2.0′, where businesses and marketers use mobile applications to further their promotional efforts and engage their audiences, while tracking the effectiveness of their efforts.  Its truly interactive marketing and bravo to Toyota for teaching us all what’s possible.