11/11/08 by Cellit Staff | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
(LAS VEGAS) — Cellit announced today the launch of their stand-alone coupon redemption Widgit® at the In-Store Marketing Institute Expo. This new Widgit enables retailers and QSR brands the ability to redeem and track mobile coupons in real-time directly through their Windows-based point of sale system, without costly integration.
“We have had significant interest in a way to quickly track coupons delivered to the mobile phone,” said David Wachs, President of Cellit. “While we have been delivering mobile coupons for years now, our new Widgit enables a higher level of integration with our clients, virtually eliminating the need for them to change their business processes to accept mobile coupons. The Widgit provides the flexibility to work on multiple POS systems without any significant technical installation and can be set up within minutes on most systems.”
The system is already in use across several Cellit clients, ranging from lodging and casino installations, to franchised food outlets. Running in the background behind the POS system, the Widgit can be quickly activated to enter redemption codes before or during the customer checkout process. The Widgit is tied into Cellit’s real-time database to ensure accurate reporting and redemption information.
“It’s another way that we are trying to create powerful, yet simple-to-use solutions to meet the precise needs of our clients,” Wachs said. “We are thrilled by the immediate interest in the system from our existing client base and are proud to unveil the system to the public at the In-Store Marketing Expo.”
The Widgit complements 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.
“Cellit Studio was designed from the start to provide uniquely track-able coupon codes within each offer”, continued Wachs. “Now, the store clerk no longer has to log on to the Cellit Studio web site to redeem the coupons and ensure their validity. The user simply presses a hotkey from within their POS and the Widgit appears. It is a simple solution to the complex problem of mobile coupon redemptions.”
The Widgit can be installed within a few minutes on any point of sale system connected to the internet, running Windows 95 or above. For clients requiring a higher level of integration with their POS and business processes, Cellit also offers a complete programming API.
The In-Store Marketing Expo is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center November 12-14th, 2008, where Cellit is an exhibitor at Booth #484.
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.
10/10/08 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
Although most in the wireless industry thought it was inevitable, it is still significant that, according to new data from NPD Group, the iPhone has already become the top-selling handset in the United States. This achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that Motorola’s Razr, the handset that the iPhone displaced at the top in the third quarter of 2008, has held the top spot for 3 years straight.
NPD analyst Ross Rubin called the ascension of the iPhone over the Razr “a watershed shift.”
While the mobile internet had been a feature that most consumers could live without until recently, it has clearly become such an essential tool for mobile subscribers, along with text messaging and other advanced data features, that even phones as expensive as the iPhone are selling in record numbers.
“Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features,” said Rubin.
The analyst said he discerned a growing divide in the handset market between voice-centric phones and those optimized for data and Internet usage. Fully 30% sought a device with a QWERTY keypad, up from 11% in the prior year. U.S. carriers combined now offer 50 models of smartphones, while in Europe that number is nearly 250 models.
Cellit is heeding the call for robust mobile campaigns which incorporate consumer’s new thirst for more interactive mobile experiences. While text-messaging remains the backbone of Cellit’s suite of services, new features, such as WAP sites and custom iPhone apps have been added to their repertoire to engage the consumer in ways that simply weren’t possible until smartphones and other data-enabled devices appeared.
09/25/08 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
Advertising Perceptions, a market-research firm, recently released a study on advertiser optimism which makes one thing abundantly clear; advertisers and marketers are clearly concerned with the health of their industry and have already taken steps to weather the storm. Yet, even with the impending economic woes that advertisers have already begun to feel the effects of, there are two media categories with which advertisers seem to still have a healthy level of confidence; online and mobile.
While every category saw a decrease this year in the percentage of respondents who felt they would increase spending, online actually saw the only decrease in those who felt they would decrease spending and mobile only saw a 4% increase in those who would decrease spending, by far the two most optimistic results. Additionally, only 4% and 9% envisioned a decrease in online and mobile spending; the next closest category was Cable TV with a full 20% saying a decrease was imminent.
The results clearly point to an industry that has become much more cautious in the past few years, but has also seen online and mobile as the two areas which are the least effected by the current economic climate. When pressed for reasons for their answers, most respondents pointed to the accountability and raw metrics which can be derived from both online and mobile marketing that simply don’t exist for the other types of media.
While the level of consumer interest in print and radio has clearly declined with each year, the internet and mobile are experiencing unprecedented levels of expansion due to their immediacy and interactivity. And in the near future, mobile may emerge as an even bigger player than online as it is the pinnacle of both immediacy and interactivity, with more people having mobile phones than computers and a level of portability that even laptops cannot compete with.
06/25/08 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
We know that every day more people are using their iphones, blackberries, and other mobile devices to surf the web. In the past few years, one of the biggest areas of change has been the amount of Internet users who are accessing websites via phones and mobile devices. As a result, Web designers have a growing need to be educated in this area and ready to design websites that accommodate this audience.
So here are some trends that you will find in 2009 in mobile web design:
- Simple Options – Nobody wants to be scrolling through pages and pages of unnecessary info. When it comes to mobile websites, simplicity is key. Make it easy for the user to navigate on your mobile website
- White Space – White space is an important part of any design, and it’s something that’s usually a challenge in Web design because there is a desire to get as much as possible in front of the visitor. But in mobile design the screen is much smaller the white space becomes more of a necessity in mobile design
- Lack of Images – On a regular laptop or desktop images are encourage to help spark the visitor’s interest to a website but on the other hand it can be harmful for mobile websites. Because the screen is so small it will be hard for visitors to see the image and also harder for them to read the content. Again, less is more.
- Sub-domains instead of .mobi or separate domains – It is becoming more common that companies have a serparate url for they mobile websites. For example m.twitter.com, mobile.washingtonpost.com and netflix.com/mobile/.
- Prioritized content – Make sure that the content is prioritized towards the visitor, unlike websites they are full of banner ads and advertisement. Most mobile websites are ad-free, therefore mobile websites are more focused toward the visitor.
