CMA Mobile Marketing Conference Debrief

Last week I attended the CMA Mobile Marketing Conference in Toronto. Here are some of my condensed notes and key takeaways:

• Less than 1% of all websites are mobile enabled and yet in 2011 most people access the internet via a mobile device. <–Please read that again.
• 3/10 Canadians have smartphones, however the key thing to pay attention to is the drastically rising adoption rate (over 90%/year).
• 9/10 high income earning Canadians have smartphones.
• 50% of Twitter use occurs on mobile devices.
• On average, Americans spend 3 hours a day on their mobile device.
• Half of all local searches occur on a mobile device.
• The definition of mobile has evolved. Focus should be on understanding that people want contextually relevant content on the go.
• Magic mirrors are coming. Watch “The Future of Screen Technology“.

A few updates and learnings

This last month of October has been quite eventful for me in terms of work and travel. Some of the organizations I was privileged to work with on various elements of strategic digital engagement include:

• Treasury Board
• City of Hamilton
• Canada Health Infoway
• Baycrest
• Ministry of Natural Resources (Ontario)
• Government of Manitoba
• Government of Alberta
• Government of Saskatchewan

A few things I learned last month:

• Mobile is finally creeping onto the radars of senior management. I know it may not seem like it to most public servants, however there are plenty of initiatives currently underway that should be launching over the course of the next year. To date, the largest list of mobile initiatives I have managed to collaboratively compile within the Canadian Government can be found on www.mobilegovernment.ca

QR Codes – Why you need to know what they are

They’ve been around since 1994, you’ve likely seen them and maybe even used them unknowingly,  however QR (Quick Response) codes have been given a new birth thanks to modern smartphones.

What are they?

“A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.”- Wikipedia.