Media Converged, a division of Qwasi Inc.

Mobile Marketing Watch: While the fate of once mighty daily deal giants like Groupon remains unknown, the future remains very bright for mobile coupons.

As major retailers escalate their incorporation of mobile coupons into all facets of their marketing strategy, consumers have begun searching for coupons not only at home on their computer or mobile device, but when they’re actually shopping at bricks and mortar stores.

Mobile Marketing Watch: Fueled by the unbridled adoption of smartphones and tablets among U.S. consumers, eCommerce sales are on pace to grow at a significant annual rate through 2017.

Forrester’s new “U.S. Online Retail Forecast, 2012 To 2017” report indicates that mobile will be critical to the ongoing eCommerce boom in the United States.

Mobile Marketing Watch: Getting in and out of Walmart may become a much faster process if the latest mobile technologies are successfully deployed by the retail behemoth.

Walmart’s iPhone Scan & Go pilot program is set to expand to more than 200 stores. Walmart shoppers at these locations will be able to use their iPhones to scan and pay for items at self-checkout counters.

1. Ace Hardware Knows Which Way the Wind is Blowing
   Ace Hardware is a national brand with local or regional ownership. Westlake Ace, a franchise owning 88 stores across 7 states, allowed SMS subscribers to opt-in for weather notifications based on ZIP code. These warnings not only provided valuable weather information, but also notes about how to prepare — and what to buy at Ace Hardware — to be ready. It resulted both in higher sales as storms approached, but in a huge subscriber increase as people got friends to sign up for the weather warnings.
2. Coca-Cola Goes Mad in March
   People drink Coke while watching TV, and Coke has figured out that people drink Coke Zero while watching sports on TV. During March Madness (the NCAA Basketball championship tournament, always held in March), Coke sprang for on-air announcements during the game related to prizes and codes printed on various Coke Zero/Diet Coke products. The end result meant interacting with the brand and the game simultaneously. It’s not as though Coke really needed more brand awareness (it’s the most-recognized logo in the world), but the March Madness initiative didn’t lose them any ground.
3. Land’s End
   The clothing catalog giant went big for Mother’s Day with an SMS campaign that reads like a “Nagging Mother” joke. In the week prior to the day, they sent three different reminders to get a gift for Mom…and a note that a Land’s End gift card would be perfect for just such an occasion. This one didn’t increase subscriber lists significantly, but boosted sales of both gift cards and merchandise.           

4.      San Diego Chargers Most teams have an SMS list to let fans keep up with the team throughout the season, but the Chargers went one step further. During the off season, subscribers receive updates about star players and training regimens, alerts on local appearances, and opportunities to get involved in polls and trivia contests to win Chargers swag. If there’s a better way to keep in top-of-mind awareness when not immediately relevant, we haven’t seen it.

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Mobile Marketer: Pointing to the success of mobile marketing to drive in-store traffic, close to half of all mobile ad campaigns from the retail and restaurant vertical included a store locator during the first half of 2012, according to a new study from Millennial Media.

Millennial Media’s November Smart report looks specifically at the retail and restaurant industries. In addition to using examples to show what these companies are doing in mobile, the report also examines how consumers respond to mobile advertising from restaurant and retail brands.