Diaspora cofounder at 22
Different POVs on Kindle Fire
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about lack of connection in her area
Top Ad/Mktg/Tech News of 11/14/2011 0
Diaspora cofounder at 22
Different POVs on Kindle Fire
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-
about lack of connection in her area
Start-Up Watch COD: With Zoove, Everyone Can be a Star (Star) 0
Remember when short codes were, like, the coolest thing out there? The idea that you could ask a consumer to only dial 5 numbers to be connected to your brand call center ? Well, five digit short codes were certainly an improvement on dialing ten digits, but only by a certain degree. There’s still a significant degree of consumer friction inherent in “Text ENTER to 24437.”
Then there were the executional issues inherent in setting up short codes across carriers. There were service providers to make it easier, but it was never a doddle.
And then QR came along. While QR codes make things simpler than short codes in some ways, they actually add complexity in others. They need to be arranged cross carriers, require that the consumer download a QR reader, and also necessitate the consumer having a device with a camera. None of these prerequisites requires an effort analogous to completing a triathlon, but they do present friction, scale issues, compatibility issues, and drive up consumer and marketer complexity. Not good things.
Zoove is a start-up Hellbent on making mobile easier for BOTH consumers and brands by leveraging ** + numbers. The idea is to replace a broad range of mobile action types with memorable ** + vanity numbers that can drive a host of desirable actions at the consumer’s request. What kinds of actions? How about:
•Coupon Download: Dial ** + vanity number to get a text that provides a coupon url
•App Download: Dialing the ** + apps number activates the Zoove platform, which detects your device type and redirects your phone to the appropriate page for the download in the appropriate app store (Apple, Android, etc.)
•Video View: Dial ** + number and your phone automatically displays the desired video content, using a player appropriate for your device type.
•Website Visit: Dial ** + number and have a url appear on your device
•Purchase: Dial ** + number to visit a store or begin a transaction
•Sweeps Entry: Again, ** + number spawns the entry form
•Voting: Dial ** + number to have your vote recorded
Oh, you get it. By performing the most ubiquitous phone action – dialing a number — the consumer can receive a host of resulting experiences. You can also communicate a ** + number in any medium. That’s cool. After all, QR don’t work on da radio…
Here’s the flick:
So why care? Rather than my telling you, why not experience just one of the reasons first hand. Quick, without looking, try and remember the short code I mentioned in the first paragraph. If you had any difficulty doing so, the reason why a ** + vanity number might be preferable should be rather obvious.
This is all about making the desired consumer action easy to perform and remember. Brands can choose and register branded terms OR generic terms that denote the type of experience that will be spawned by the action. So, **PEPSI, or **CONTEST. But with the right vanity number, I cannot imagine that response rates wouldn’t explode.
To ensure that they do, Zoove manages the logistics across all major US carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint,) and ensures your content works on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Win Phone 7, HP/Palm OS, and Symbian.
The costs for ** numbers are quite reasonable, but it is a first come first served marketplace. Zoove makes its money on the ** number registrations and a cost per action on client programs. Based upon the insider info I saw, the prices are very reasonable.
Drop dead simple. Powerful. Performance enhancing. Hard to imagine a world where that combination isn’t a winner. Expect Zoove to do very very well in the months and years ahead.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
I Wuvs Ya T-Mobile 0
I just dumped the iPhone for a G2 from T-Mobile. I am so happy. It wasn’t a magical transition. T-Mobile transposed my home phone with my ATT celly number, so that took a day, and then there was a bit of a problem with what services I had ordered. That took another day. But through it all their customer service people were magical. They made it clear that they cared and wanted to put things right.
The G2 is very nice, but not as easy or intuitive as an iPhone. But then, much of the capability of an iPhone was theoretical given that I live in the Bay Area and mostly travel to NYC.
Their Australian partner managed to give me five bars most everywhere I traveled, but ATT itself couldn’t consistently connect me from my bedroom in Oakland.
Oh, I know, the iPhone users on ATT suck down a lot of bandwidth. More than anyone if I remember that market research correctly. But here’s the deal, if your network can’t handle more iPhones — phones that cost a mint every month — perhaps it’s time to stop selling them until you throw a few more towers up in t
he SF financial district.
I had no complaints about ATT customer service. There people were lovely as well. Imagine what it is like to deal with jackass digital netizen webizens who are striken with the world’s most overtaxed network.
ATT had been my choice two years ago because of the mind bogglingly dreadful customer service from Sprint. And because they had iPhone. But mostly it was because being a valued Sprint customer, whose calls were very important to them, was equivalent to constant dry heaves.
I swear that their endless IVR reached through the phone and shoved needles in my corneas. Oh my god that company was the worst! I don’t blame the reps. After all, they didn’t create the system that made me wait hours only to tell me I had to call someone else. They weren’t the MFs that sent me four phones I didn’t order, charged me $2000, and then had the audacity to say it was my problem to ship them back. That EVO is darned cool, but nothing is worth the walking on hot coals required to be a Sprint custo—be a warm blooded serf that the Sprint leech drew hemoglobin from.
Off that soapbox. This is about lovely T-Mobile. Cheaper by far than ATT and Sprint were. And get this – I actually have a signal in my living room. Something ATT only managed on cloudless days, and Sprint only managed so they could deliver the cornea needles, or so I always imagined.
I wuvs you T Mobile. I wuvs my new phone. I wuvs actual mobile phone service. I wuvs the T Mobile people. If they got rid of their IVR at the beginning of a call, this would be what I imagine Heaven is like. Being with them hasn’t been perfect, but when they screw up, as everyone and everything does at times, they apologize. That’s all I ask. Well, that and not shoving needles into my eyeballs.
I’m a nice person — ask anyone. So I suppose I should apologize for my Sprint bile above. But I’ve wanted to pee on Sprint for years ever since they treated me like so much gum on a shoe solle, and now that I have T-Mobile, I know that a mobile company can actually be pleasant to work with.