01/14/09 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
Forget that small, black and white tv that you’re so fond of taking to your favorite ballpark. Sure it has sentimental value, and you’ll miss all those times that the static reared it’s ugly head just when your team was ready to make that all critical touchdown/run/basket.
Mobile TV, in it’s real definition, is finally grown up. Not only is the new format mobile (meaning, portable), but it’s also … literally mobile: on your phone. At last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a coallition of tevision stations, networks and electronics manufacturers announced this breakthrough.
Pre-existing technology standards were optimized for stationary television sets. When that same standard was applied to a device that moved around, the picture quality deteriorated rather quickly. The Open Mobile Video Coalition (as the group of interested parties is known) identified an inexpensive transmission process that corrects this flaw and will allow people riding in cars, trains or just walking to recieve a high quality picture.
Each television market will have a different set of available programming, but it is clear that most stations will begin offering news and some of their traditional entertainment content. Many manufacturers have already begun development of handsets that include digital tv recievers, and expect those handsets to be in stores in late 2009.
So yes, that small portable TV no longer has use. But look forward to seeing your favorite tailgating team’s action in full color on your smartphone sometime soon.
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.
10/16/08 by admin | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
CHICAGO–Cellit Mobile Marketing, the premier provider of mobile marketing solutions, announces the addition of Robert Horne as Cellit’s new Chief Marketing Officer. Bob will oversee the development and implementation of innovative mobile strategies and will work with Cellit to develop effective mobile marketing solutions for key accounts.
Bob joins Cellit from Cheil Communications, one of the world’s largest agency networks and the marketing communications agency for Samsung Electronics. As CMO, Bob oversaw the agency’s North American strategic planning for optimizing brand, consumer and marketplace insights across Samsung’s HDTV, digital audio & video and mobile phone product lines.
Prior to Cheil, Bob founded Powderhorn Partners, a strategic marketing consultancy specializing in positioning and strategic planning for advertising and promotion agencies and its clients. Previously, Bob was Executive Vice President, Strategic Integration Director for Cordiant Communications (now part of WPP). Bob also held senior management positions at Siegel & Gale, Griffin Bacal/DDB, and Chiat/Day where he worked on numerous blue chip clients including Proctor & Gamble, Marriott, American Express, Pepsi, Sara Lee and Hasbro.
“We are thrilled to have Bob join our team” says David Wachs, president of Cellit. “Bob’s keen marketing insight and industry experience will allow Cellit to provide the marketing ability to match our technological prowess. Cellit continues to create world-class mobile promotions; Bob’s addition will allow us to better align these promotions with our clients’ strategic marketing needs.”
About Cellit Mobile Marketing
Cellit Mobile Marketing 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 Corporation, HSBC, Blue Man Group and Coors Brewing, Cellit has a reputation for delivering groundbreaking custom mobile applications. Cellit’s suite of self-service products are applications that allow both large and small companies to easily manage and track their own mobile campaigns from start to finish. Cellit is headquartered in Chicago. Learn more at www.cellit.com or by calling 800-790-6597.
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.
