The 19th Annual Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon is happening this weekend, and Cellit is participating in this great cause, helping create a better environment in our local community.
To find out more information about Chicago Cares, or to find other volunteer opportunities in the Chicago area, please visit the Chicago Cares website.
To support us in our volunteer work, feel free to add to our team donations to support Chicago Cares.
Cellit released a retail benchmark study outlining best practices for mobile marketing campaigns to drive sales, grow subscriber databases, and retail loyal customers.
The release was picked up by several media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, which included a brief statement from David Wachs, the SVP of Mobile for ePrize, GM of Cellit:
“Mobile marketing is still in its infancy. While retailers engaging in mobile programs are finding tremendous value, only a small number of companies have taken full advantage of this effective marketing mechanism. We released this study to help retailers get a better understanding of what to expect when launching an SMS program, and how to achieve ongoing engagement and success with mobile CRM.”
Click here to download the retail benchmark report.
As a mobile developer, there is a wide array of options available to use when creating mobile sites for smartphones. While older phones tend to have trouble displaying anything other than ordinary HTML 4, devices running on Android or iOS have capabilities rivaling modern desktop browsers. The question is how to most effectively take advantage of those capabilities.
For the last couple of projects I’ve worked on at Cellit, jQuery Mobile has helped with this aspect on the frontend and integrated well with our own proprietary mobile web framework that we use on the backend. The project’s creators bill it as a “Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets,” which in buzz-free English just means it’s a great tool to have around when building a mobile site that needs to function and look as close to a native app as possible. Using HTML 5 and its namesake JavaScript library, jQuery Mobile enables developers to seamlessly incorporate advanced JavaScript behavior, such as smooth page transitions and touch-based event handling, into mobile sites. As an added bonus for designers, jQuery Mobile includes a convenient theming system called ThemeRoller that allows for rapid theme development alongside the backend work.
What does this mean for clients?
Cellit’s clients now have an easier decision to make when it comes to choosing between a native mobile app (developed exclusively for either Android or iOS), or a mobile web app (accessible on all modern mobile browsers). The decision can now be based more on functionality than behavior. In other words, if you don’t want to limit your audience to a particular platform, but still want all the snappiness and sleek looks that come with a native solution, that is all the more possible now. Generally, one of the advantages of native apps has been that they can achieve a faster, better-looking end-user experience with the catch that it only works on a particular platform. While there are certainly still reasons to go the native route, such as platform-specific functionality and integration, mobile web apps no longer have to sacrifice the performance and user experience categories.
The end-user experience
For users, this is a win-win situation. As more and more web development is geared toward mobile devices, the web as a whole will only improve for everyone. According to StatCounter, mobile web usage has doubled every year since 2009, and that trend isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. As a project, jQuery Mobile is still in its infancy (version 1.0.1 was recently released), and it isn’t one of a kind. Other similar frameworks have popped up and as more alternatives become available to developers, this will unquestionably lead to a more effective, efficient, and mature mobile web.
Get in touch with Cellit today to find out how we can make your presence on the mobile web more engaging.
Digital marketing agency predicts 80 percent of campaigns will include mobile component in 2012
PLEASANT RIDGE, Mich., January 19, 2012 – ePrize, a digital engagement agency specializing in interactive mobile, social media, and web campaigns — today announced the acquisition of Cellit, a Chicago-based mobile marketing agency.
Cellit’s expertise in mobile marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions include short message services (SMS), mobile-optimized sites and mobile applications, which will position ePrize to capture the growing mobile market.
“Rapid consumer adoption of mobile technology is, fundamentally changing how brands engage and inform the public about new products and services,” said Matt Wise, ePrize CEO. “MMA Global reported that 83 percent of mobile users take their phones with them everywhere; and CTIA reports that 74 million people in the U.S. have opted in to text messages from marketers. Brands with a mobile component in their campaign have a huge opportunity to capture consumers wherever they are and whenever they’re ready.”
In 2012, ePrize expects mobile revenue to triple as a result of the Cellit acquisition. As the agency that administers four times more national promotions than any other company, ePrize forecasts that 80 percent of campaigns will incorporate a mobile component developed by ePrize by the end of 2012, growing from 20 percent in 2011.
“Major brands understand the value in engaging the consumer via their mobile device,” said David Wachs, Cellit founder. “They have moved beyond testing mobile programs in silos and are now implementing robust, multi-channel marketing solutions. The combination of capabilities from both ePrize and Cellit allow us to bring holistic, multi-channel solutions to market that drive customer engagement and loyalty, while creating a single customer profile for the brand. Cellit client case studies show that mobile offers drive 15-to-20 times the response rate of typical coupons and eight times the response rate of email.”
Cellit will enhance the current ePrize promotion, loyalty and re-contact offerings; enable ongoing customer relationship management via text-messaging platforms; and allow promotions and loyalty programs to integrate with in-store marketing efforts and point-of-sale systems.
This marks the second acquisition in six months for ePrize, after acquiring the customer relationship management division of Apollo Data Technologies in July 2011.
Through the acquisition, Cellit now is a division of ePrize named “Cellit: ePrize Mobile Solutions.” David Wachs, founder and president of Cellit, has joined the ePrize executive team as senior vice president of Mobile, and general manager of Cellit. Cellit offices and the company’s 16 employees will remain in Chicago, with plans to combine office space with ePrize’s Chicago team in the near future.
Portico Capital Securities served as the exclusive financial advisor to Cellit on the transaction.
About ePrize, LLC:
ePrize is a digital engagement agency specializing in mobile, social media, and web campaigns. Last year, more than half of Fortune 100 companies and many world-class agencies relied on ePrize’s creative, technology and legal services. Since 1999, ePrize has grown into the largest online promotions platform, providing incentive-based promotional and loyalty programs in 44 countries for clients like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, The Gap, HSN, Miller/Coors, Yahoo!, P&G and AT&T. Headquartered in Detroit, ePrize also has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. www.eprize.com
About Cellit
Cellit develops mobile customer relationship management (CRM) programs for retailers, restaurants and other companies looking to leverage mobile technology to create a deeper level of customer engagement. The Cellit Studio campaign management platform empowers clients to create interactive mobile CRM programs including coupons, contests, games, surveys and alerts that inform, delight and motivate customers to increase knowledge, loyalty and spending. Cellit Studio seamlessly integrates with client enterprise and point-of-sale technology and provides an easy to implement and measurable way to maximize the potential of the mobile channel. Cellit also provides custom mobile sites and phone apps to some of the largest brands in the world. Headquartered in Chicago, Cellit was recently named to the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the country.
Media Contacts:
Megan Soule
Airfoil PR for ePrize
248.304.1428
soule@airfoilpr.com