Marketing Pilgrim

Now that the holiday season is over, ForeSee has released a report that looks at the effect mobile had on holiday shopping. Not surprisingly, they found that more people than ever (33% this year versus 24% last year) used their cell phones for some aspect of shopping, be it for price comparisons, to find store locations and to actually purchase items.

Only 11% of the people reported actually making a purchase via there phone (it was 2% in 2009) but the majority of the shoppers said they used their phones to compare prices and products.

And check this out:

While in physical stores, more than two-thirds of mobile shoppers (69%) used their phones to visit the store’s own website, but nearly half (46%) also used their phones to access a competitor’s website.

Last year, marketers spent 87 million dollars on mobile game ads but Juniper Research says that’s bird seed compared to where we’ll be five years from now. A new report from the UK based company, says that mobile game ad dollars will climb to ten times that amount by 2015. That’s nearly 900 million bucks riding the coattails of Angry Birds, Grand Theft Auto and The Sims.

Much of the increase comes from the general interest in all things mobile that has been taking over the planet. You can’t even watch TV without seeing a dozen commercials for cell phones and tablets, each promoting more bells and whistles than ever before.

While everyone is busy doing the big investments and high dollar courtship only Silicon Valley can do, Google is doing something under the radar that could seriously extend their reach.

It is hard to fathom but statistics still show that somewhere between 40-50% of businesses still don’t have a website. I would laugh at that idea if I didn’t have a friend whose family business is about as old as me (even in dog years it’s a big number, trust me) and their site just came online in 2010. It’s been hard enough getting smaller businesses to play online but what will it be like for those who haven’t even entered the fray at this late date?

It’s official. Groupon has finalized a financing round that totaled $950 million and includes VC luminaries like Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz and more.

Obviously, it’s great news for the Groupon team and especially for those looking to cash out at this point as was noted in a post here late last month.

What struck me as hysterical though is some peculiar wording in the press release on Groupon’s site. We live in an age of self-promotion for sure but I was hoping that nearly a billion dollars of investment would hinge on more than this. The following line is from the actual press release from Groupon (hat tip to TechCrunch). Maybe the releases title “Groupon Raises, Like, A Billion Dollars” should’ve been a hint

Google Goggles is a smartphone app that allows you to use an offline photo to search for items online. Point your phone at the Empire State Building and zoom, your phone delivers a list of websites with everything you ever wanted to know about the landmark. Take a photo of a brand logo and you’ll be wisked to the company’s website.

Nifty, huh? But it gets better. Now you can take photo of an ad in any major newspaper or magazine and Google will return search results for the product being advertised. Picture it. So there you are in the doctor’s office, flipping through People magazine and you see an ad for the latest Glee CD. Snap a picture, follow the links and thirty seconds later you’re listening to peppy cover of Toxic on your iPhone. Talk about impulse buying.

Get ready for some shocking news. Celebrities are hawking products for money and some of them are not providing full disclosures as required by the FTC. That means when Snoop Dogg gave a shoutout to the Sienna Minivan, it wasn’t because he liked the car, it’s because he got paid to do it!

I’ve rocked your world, I know. Take a minute. I understand. I’m sure at least half of you went out and bought that car because Snoop Dogg said it was cool and now you’re feeling scammed.

Fear not, the OFT is on your side, if you live in the UK, that is. The Office of Fair Trading is a UK consumer protection agency and they’re taking this celebrity endorsement issue seriously. An article in this weekend’s The Guardian, says that the OFT has already filed suit against a PR company that sells promotional blog posts and celeb Twitterers may be next.