02/16/09 by Cellit Staff | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
(CHICAGO) — Cellit announced today an upgrade to their stand-alone coupon redemption Widgit® that makes it compatible with Windows-based touch screen point-of-sale systems. This latest upgrade seamlessly integrates with touch-screen systems, placing an additional button on the computer screen. The store clerk can then redeem offers simply by touching the new button with their finger.
“The Cellit Widgit has received extremely positive response from retailers, both from its ease of integration and ability to track mobile ROI for clients,” said David Wachs, President of Cellit. “With the expansion to a touch screen version, we are now able to offer the same ease of use solution for virtually all Windows point-of-sale systems.”
Originally announced in November 2008 at the In-Store Marketing Institute, the Widgit allows retailers to track and redeem coupons delivered via Cellit’s mobile coupon technology. The Widgit runs in the background and can be easily activated during the customer checkout process, allowing the retailer to interact in real time with the database of coupon codes. The system is already in use across several Cellit clients, ranging from lodging and casino installations, to franchised food outlets.
“Cellit prides itself on providing powerful yet simple solutions that help achieve positive bottom line results,” Wachs said. “It is another great example of how mobile can extend or replace traditional marketing activities and generate truly track-able, measurable results.”
The Widgit further extends the reach of the Cellit Studio platform, a web-based system for managing mobile marketing campaigns and CRM initiatives. Through Cellit Studio, Cellit clients can create and deploy campaigns ranging from text-to-vote and text-to-win to alerts and surveys. Cellit Studio’s mobile couponing engine provides a robust system for delivering unique coupon codes to each customer, enabling completely track-able offers and a high level of offer targeting.
About Cellit, LLC
Headquartered in Chicago, Cellit was founded on the premise that mobile technology can be accessible to all by combining engineering expertise with world-class customer service and marketing support. Cellit develops innovative and cost-effective self-service solutions for mobile marketing, as well as custom mobile solutions for some of the world’s largest brands. With clients including Hearst Corp., HSBC, and GPS Insight, Cellit has a reputation for delivering groundbreaking custom mobile applications in record time.
02/08/09 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
I was riding the EL home the other night, and sat next to a guy reading diligently on his Kindle (Amazon’s attempt at making a Ipod-like device that revolutionizes e-books). Without trying to be obvious, I was fascinated by how friendly and intuitive the device was. Through a click of a button, he was able to turn pages as if he was reading a book.
This is a mobile blog – so why do I write about the Kindle? Well, Google has just announced something dramatic that potentially trumps all the inroads that the Kindle has made. Just last week, Google made available 1.5 million e-books that are available online, for free, to users of their Android operating system (the Google Phone) or to users of Apple’s iPhone.
Granted, these books are all in the public domain – so while there are some great classics, there are plenty more that are obscure and haven’t been in print in many, many decades. Eventually, this model could be extended to include more recent titles as part of an ecommerce solution.
The implication is clear, however. The phone is the new laptop; and the addition of features like e-books is only more proof that this little tool is becoming an increasingly important portion of consumers lives.
01/26/09 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Marketing Blog | No Comments »
Many people use mobile marketing and mobile advertising as synonyms. Even I’ve been caught taking the shortcut and lumping the two together. However, they are not. And that’s an important distinction.
Mobile Marketing, or the act of using mobile to market your product or service, is definitely here and doing well. This is the activity that (at least in Chicago) I’m starting to see pop up everywhere. I was out for Mexican food on New Years Eve, and the waitress tried to get me to sign up for their mobile coupon club. It’s at the barbershop, grocery store and lots of the little boutiques that dot my neighborhood. Mobile is really good for this type of activity; a close, personal interaction directly between brand and consumer.
Mobile Advertising, however, is still in its infancy. I read a great article about why that is and the pitfalls we should avoid as usage grows. The big stumbling block is two fold: fragmentation (as each carrier has different standards, along with the multitude of phone models available at any given point in time) as well as compelling creative standards (there’s no equivalent of the banner ad).
The two activities have polar opposite advantages and disadvantages. In mobile marketing, the marketer owns the relationship but reaches a smaller audience initially as they grow their own database of phone numbers. In mobile advertising, someone else owns the relationship but the marketer gains access to a much larger network of people faster.
While the road may be a little slower, it would be my recommendation that businesses looking to experiment with mobile take the path of mobile marketing and build their own database while controlling the relationship. Not only does this prove (in my mind) to be the better longer term solution, but also avoids all the uncertainty and growth pains that mobile advertising is going through.
01/20/09 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Marketing Blog | No Comments »
Cell carriers are expecting to experience significant volume as throngs of revelers descend on Washington, DC for the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. While they’ve added capacity, many are already encouraging consumers to reduce or eliminate as much communication as possible to keep traffic on their networks from becoming clogged up. The recommendation: if you must communicate, communicate via text.
Text messaging requires less data than a traditional phone call, and can slip through the network with much more ease. As such, with an event like the inauguration, using text messaging will enable many more millions of messages to be sent than calling alone would allow. While this is hardly no secret – I’ve figured this out many times while trying to communicate with friends on New Years Eve – it is the first time that I’ve heard companies actually encourage messaging’s use.
I think a key point here for me, as a marketer, is that messaging can be critically effective for large groups of people gathered at specific events. Concerts, fairs, street festivals, etc. These events tend to collect a very targeted demographic group, and for companies trying to reach members of that group … and piggyback on the marketing opportunity, text may be the most economical, effective way to do so.
