Smartphones are the most powerful data-collection tools ever created. They don’t just tell you what consumers want. They tell you where consumers are. Sometimes they even tell you what consumers are doing at different times as they move through their days. Location + Activity + Time: it’s a powerful formula. Never before have consumers provided such subtle information about their actual behavior. Many companies, though, in a rush to seize a toehold in the exploding mobile market, mistakenly focus on the technology instead of the people using it. As a result, their messages are not relevant enough, and consumers filter out the messages as static, the mobile equivalent of telemarketing.

1. ThE NEw MobilE
MiNdsET:
Four Rules of Mobile Engagement
ENGAUGE.CoM

2. ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET
introduction
Smartphones are the most powerful data-collection tools ever created. They don’t just tell
you what consumers want. They tell you where consumers are. Sometimes they even tell
you what consumers are doing at different times as they move through their days.
Location + Activity + Time: it’s a powerful formula. Never before have consumers provided
such subtle information about their actual behavior. Many companies, though, in a rush
to seize a toehold in the exploding mobile market, mistakenly focus on the technology
instead of the people using it. As a result, their messages are not relevant enough, and
consumers filter out the messages as static, the mobile equivalent of telemarketing.
To be relevant to consumers, and to slip past the filter, companies need to shift their
approach to mobile marketing. Consumers no longer passively participate in campaigns.
Instead, they respond in real time, influencing both the scope and direction of promotions.
It’s a two-way conversation. Brands have to know how to listen and adapt, instantly.
It’s not enough to release a sparkly new mobile app. Innovative applications are
important, of course, but brands have to do more. They have to motivate people to act by
designing campaigns as dynamic and flexible as the mobile market, which now includes
search, social, video, music, gaming, payments, retail transactions, location-based
bY RiChARd GUY services and augmented reality. They’ll need a deep understanding of how mobile apps
can drive views, downloads and check-ins, and how to schedule specific calls-to-action
ANd CARlA PAsChkE around release dates, product trials and related campaigns, both on and offline. They’ll
need real-time monitoring of the flood of information streaming in from mobile apps and
social media in order to assemble a view from 50,000 feet, and they’ll also need to zoom
down to ground level, tailoring the user experience on an individual level.
And, crucially, brands will need to build these new mobile capabilities atop a solid
strategic foundation. Rather than developing a series of one-offs, brands should consider
how their mobile applications integrate with mobile web, location-based partnerships and
SMS campaigns. Engauge knows how to get brands noticed in this brave new world.
In 2011, mobile will contribute an
additional $1.1 billion to the digital ad
market, which will top $28.5 billion
this year.
Source: eMarketer
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 2

3. RUlE No. 1: send Useful signals, Not Meaningless static
1
According to Gartner, the mobile advertising market is expected to double to $3.3 billion in
2011 and swell to $20.6 billion by 2015. Yet many of these mobile ads will never be seen.
Bombarded by emails, Facebook status updates and tweets, consumers are overwhelmed
by noise – and this is before marketers even enter the picture. The more noise floods in,
the more adept consumers become at filtering it out. This dynamic isn’t going to change.
A wise brand strategy, then, swims with the current instead of against it, presenting itself
as a useful component of the filtering process.
Case Study: Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Ruth’s Chris Steak House wanted its business clientele to be able to make reservations
easily, quickly and on the go. Engauge designed an iPhone app that not only allows users
to find the nearest steakhouse location and peruse the menu, but also to make, view
and cancel reservations in real time. Diners are able to instantly adjust their plans, while
the wait staff is alerted immediately if the status of an existing reservation changes or
a new party is coming in to dine. Engauge also leveraged preferred partner status with
OpenTable to sync the application with computer systems at each individual restaurant,
allowing each restaurant’s staff a new level of control and flexibility over the seating chart.
The desire to filter out noise on
the part of consumers will only
grow. To make sure you’re not the
one being clicked off, you have to
present your brand as useful to the
filtering process.
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 3

4. RUlE No. 2: Create Two-way Conversations between brand
and Consumer
2
From a messaging standpoint, the great novelty and power of a mobile device is
obviously context; a mobile phone is the only consumer appliance that knows where it is
at all times. Companies can unlock that power by sending hyper-targeted messages based
on narrow windows of opportunity or location.
But the process shouldn’t end there. Brands and their agency partners need to know how
to get consumers to talk back, to register their preferences in low-key, frictionless ways.
Multi-billion-dollar companies have been built atop algorithms tied to small clickable
buttons – think about the “Like This” button on Facebook, or the “Was this review helpful
to you?” radio button on Amazon. (By simply adding this question to each product page,
Amazon brought in $2.7 billion of additional yearly revenue.) When people see that their
input actually does have some effect, changing their personal experience of a brand, they
appreciate it and come back. The more they register preferences, the more trust brands
builds and the easier it becomes to access even richer information about consumer
preferences.
Case Study: NGK Spark Plugs USA
The do-it-yourself movement is often wrongly interpreted as anti-consumerism. It’s not.
DIY warriors will spend lavishly to buy supplies for home projects; they just want to be
the ones wielding the hammer and opening the lid. The spread of DIY pride, sometimes
referred to as the Maker Movement, represents an opportunity for brands that offer the
tools that make home projects possible. NGK Spark Plugs USA has two established
constituencies of gearheads – a younger, brasher class of fearless hackers and a more
conservative group of garage-tinkering boomers. The challenge for the auto parts
manufacturer was how to attract less car-savvy consumers to their brand without losing
their core customers. Engauge crafted an iPhone app that was fully video-savvy, allowing
users to access tutorials and upload their own videos to NGK’s YouTube channel and also
featured a searchable, interactive database of spark plugs. The edgy graphic design of
the app is designed to mesh with the aesthetic of The Art of Fast, a microsite created by
Engauge for NGK. With the iPhone app, expert garage warriors can easily tailor their own
experience, drilling down to access information specific to their vehicle’s make and model
and comparing the virtues of, say, the platinum-tipped spark plug versus the iridium-
tipped spark plug. At the same time, more novice consumers can ease their way into the
same database of information by using a built-in search function. Also, once customers
tell the app about their vehicle, the app remembers which parts will be compatible.
The item and stock number of each compatible item is always at the ready, instantly,
anywhere.
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 4

5. RUlE No. 3 socialize the Content and the Campaign
3:
As social networks become more seamlessly integrated into the rituals of daily life – at
this point, especially for young people, checking Facebook is as natural and subconscious
as, say, snacking – it’s not surprising to see that the social-network market has become
saturated. Overall growth is slowing; in 2010, 134.6 million people used social networks
across all technology platforms, and in 2011, that number will rise by a little more than
3 percent, according to eMarketer. But the mobile-phone share of that pie is expanding
rapidly. In fact, social networking is now the fastest-growing mobile activity. Brands need
to take this shift into account as consumers get in the habit of checking Facebook on
the run and learn to react with boredom (or worse, outright suspicion) to any brand that
doesn’t respect the coin of the Facebook realm, which is direct interaction. Facebook is
a tool for conversations. Ad campaigns are conversations too. This is a nice coincidence
and a useful one to any brand that knows how to effectively integrate the sometimes
chaotic feedback that comes streaming in from this new class of smartphone-liberated
consumers, jabbing at their smartphones in stores, schools, trains and homes.
Case Study: Food Lion
Retail customer service now starts somewhere in the parking lot, at the moment when a
potential customer “checks in” on a smartphone. Food Lion was refreshing several stores
in Greenville, North Carolina and wanted to increase awareness of the renewal effort. As
3
part of a mobile geolocation marketing campaign, Engauge selected and monitored 20
“hot spots” using a loyalty-promotion software tool called PlacePunch, which integrates
seamlessly with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. The hot spots were clustered around
East Carolina University, where lots of young people live and adoption rates for social
media are higher. Whenever potential customers used Foursquare to check into one of
the 20 hot spots, they received a tweet encouraging them to visit a nearby street team.
Customers also received a message on their mobile telling them about prizes they could
win. For Food Lion, this was a chance to outpace its competition in the mobile arena and
demonstrate that it was monitoring all channels of consumer feedback.
Case Study: Chick-fil-A
It used to be that a great road sign could entice a driver to pull off the road for a burger
or a chicken sandwich, but that’s not enough anymore. The brand has to be inside the
car. Chick-fil-A created a series of comic books that featured its mascots, those sly, EAT
MOR CHIKIN cows, as superheroes. The comic books, which promoted literacy, were
Brands that adapt their mobile
given away in kids’ meals and Engauge
strategies based on direct adapted the printed books for the iPad.
feedback from fans will find that In the iPad app, the static cover of the
they are pre-qualified for a deeper comic is a puzzle; the first thing that
discussion. And the conversation a user sees is something dynamic
that stems from those interactions and fun, and the app builds on that
forms the foundation of a lasting commitment to interaction with built-
relationship. Effectively integrating in links to social media and email,
this feedback is critical for a mature allowing kids and their parents to tell
friends about the comics with a couple
mobile marketing strategy.
of clicks. It’s a flexible framework that
leaves room to add new content down
the line, allowing Chick-fil-A to leverage
the educational component of its brand
to create new sorts of experiences for
customers.
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 5

6. RUlE No. 4 Understand and Apply Usage data
4:
By combining three types of mobile data – Location + Activity + Time – it’s now possible
for marketers to assemble an unprecedentedly subtle and detailed picture of consumer
behavior, one that takes into account the shifting personas of consumers. A mom, for
instance, is a different person at 7 a.m. when she’s getting the kids ready for school than
she is at 7:30 after she has dropped them off. Can a savvy marketer shift its message
to stay relevant to that mom within that half-hour space? Relevancy – driving the right
message at the right time in the right medium – is the challenge and the opportunity of
the revolutionary data-collection capabilities of smartphones. Whether it’s SMS messages,
push notifications, mobile advertisements or dynamic content, Engauge leverages
precision marketing tactics to drive relevancy.
Case Study: AutoTrader.com
In the candy-colored glare of a large car show, it’s easy for a brand to get lost. If the booth
happens to be in an out-of-the-way corner, grabbing the attention of a potential customer
4
can be nearly impossible. AutoTrader.com and Engauge figured out a way to skip the line.
When Facebook or Foursquare users checked into an auto show, they received a tweet
from AutoTrader.com with a promotional offer that directed the potential customer to the
AutoTrader.com booth. This way, AutoTrader.com was able to reach out to car enthusiasts
in a consistent manner with a relevant message, even as their space and location differed
at various auto shows across the country.
Case Study: InterContinental Hotels Group
When you were a kid, you told your mom when you got somewhere. These days, you
tell the entire Internet. But the Internet wasn’t thanking you for checking in, until now.
InterContinental Hotels Group was looking to utilize social media to drive awareness of
its summer stay and earn program, Hit It Big. Engauge partnered with the location-based
program Gowalla to design a custom stamp for each of the eight distinct IHG properties.
Customers were then given the option to check in on Gowalla or ask for more information
Mobile devices offer an to be emailed to their mobile when they arrived at the hotel. Over a six-week time frame,
unprecedented amount of guests received messages on their first, second and fifth stays to create incentives that
information about customers. encouraged return visits. While initially focused on awareness, Engauge created a second
Consumers often willingly share layer for the latter portion of the promotion as a loyalty play. Foursquare check-ins at
that information. Companies must domestic properties were monitored via PlacePunch. If a customer’s Twitter handle was
extend the dialogue well beyond public, they received one of several iterations of a goodwill or promotional greeting. By
the point of sale to stay connected asking what else they could do while a customer was still at their hotel, IHG received
to dialed-in consumers. praise for marketing in the mobile space and one request to refill the ice machine down
the hall.
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 6

7. About The Authors
Carla Paschke
Carla leads the mobile arm of Engauge’s Digital Innovation Group,
where she is focused on providing clients with best-in-class mobile
strategies, growing the company’s mobile portfolio and managing
day-to-day activities within the team. As a founding member of the
Digital Innovation Group, Carla has been instrumental in propelling
Engauge into the mobile space and sharing best practices and
strategic insights across the internal organization. Prior to her current
role, she held several positions in project and team management
and has worked with clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, The
Hershey Company and Chick-fil-A.
Richard Guy
Richard has been developing software for over 13 years and has
spent the last two years focused solely on mobile development. He
has helped build a mobile presence for a number of companies
including Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Chick-fil-A, Valassis RedPlum
and NGK Spark Plugs. He currently leads up Engauge’s mobile
development team, which has released applications for the iPhone,
Android and iPad.
About Engauge
One of the nation’s largest independent agencies, Engauge leverages creativity
and technology to connect brands and people. The agency’s client roster includes
Nationwide Insurance, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Coca-Cola,
Best Buy For Business, Chick-fil-A, Brown-Forman, Food Lion, The State of Georgia,
Donatos, NGK Spark Plugs and more. Engauge, which has offices in Atlanta, Austin,
Columbus, Orlando and Pittsburgh, is a portfolio company of Halyard Capital.
FOR NEW BUSINESS INQUIRIES:
Greg Davis
Executive Vice President,
Business Development
email: gdavis@engauge.com
mobile: 914.645.4381
Image Credits:
p1: Nesster, http://flic.kr/p/545kBa
p2: Jason Kuffer, http://flic.kr/p/4jKGQ2
p4: Stewart Butterfield, http://flic.kr/p/fUUDz
p5: Quinn Dombrowski, http://flic.kr/p/4vRUEL
ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsET | 7