And the Oscar goes to…

I would like to take a moment and give a big congratulations to our client Participant Media, and everyone involved in the Best Documentary Oscar-winning film, “The Cove.”

If you missed the big win last night, you can catch it here under “Acceptance Speeches: Documentary” (Make sure to pay attention for the mobile call-to-action).

I don’t think I’m the only one who noticed the cameras quickly pan away from one of the filmmakers’ banner with the call-to-action spelled out (right?). Luckily, people have other means of distributing a message rather than live television, and we saw that first hand last night as the Twittersphere blew up with support for the cause.

You can’t force something to go viral, but Participant Media tee’d this one up perfectly and found the perfect trigger to get its message out.  Since last night’s win, we’ve seen the mobile subscribers more than double – and the numbers are still flowing in fast.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to text DOLPHIN to 44144 to add your name to the list to continue to save the tens of thousands of dolphins and porpoises slaughtered each year in Japan.

You can also VOTE TODAY (this is the last day for voting) for Participant Media and Waterfall Mobile in Adweek’s Buzz Awards – People’s Choice Award for the mobile campaign supporting this cause.

Also, the movie is already available on DVD, so don’t forget to add it to your queue.

Again, a huge thanks to all to tweeted to get this word out.  The film has a powerful message, and we are thrilled to be a part of this campaign.

Mythbusters

Waterfall’s own Matt Silk evaluates the myths and realities of LBS (Location Based Services) in a guest editorial for iMedia Connection that posted today.

iMedia Connection is a top trade publisher and event producer serving interactive media and marketing industries.

You can check out Matt’s post here.

The Rules of The Road

Waterfall’s own Matt Silk outlines best practices for mobile marketing in an exclusive opinion essay for DMNews that posted today.

DMNews, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is acknowledged as one of the top trade publications in the direct marketing space. This is Matt’s second post for DMNews’ “InDirectly” blog.

You can check out Matt’s post here.

Release: Msgme v2.6

We are happy to announce that the latest version of Msgme (2.6) was recently released and includes many new features and enhanced functionality.

Highlights of the release include:

• Location Verification Plugin – Collect location information such as state and zip code to later target and segment subscribers. With our new plugin infrastructure built directly into the Campaign Edit, users can set up new campaigns that include / exclude specific geographic areas instantly and easily.
• MO (Mobile Originated) Routing – Control user activity and direct MOs to specific account keywords. In other words, you can now have multiple CTAs w/ unique keywords, point them all to one Msgme subscription and track everything in the Message Activity report.
• New APIs – Leverage more great Msgme functionality from external platforms, products and services with our new APIs:
  • Create Campaign: Creating subscription and basic text campaigns.
  • Send Subscribers Message: Adding filter parameters (city, state, date of birth, etc…) to subscription blasts. Also enables multiple and custom messages for each number.
  • Get Message Activity: Retrieve message activity per account, short code, keyword or MSIDN.
  • Get Delivery Receipts: Retrieve specific message delivery information from aggregators, carriers and handsets.
  • A complete list of Msgme APIs and enhancements is located here.
• Updated Pricing – Message pricing packages have been updated to add more messaging and decrease overage rates. As our business scales to new volume tiers, we want to share those cost savings with our clients. Existing client accounts will be automatically upgraded in October 2009.
• Enhanced Wallpaper Delivery – Clients may now upload 5 files of different aspect ratios for any wallpaper campaign. This ensures a much higher quality wallpaper delivery across a larger number of devices – all served through the self-service interface directly.
• Developer Site Enhancements – We enhanced and upgraded our developer site with new content and API enhancements. Be sure to check out the developer forums in the Community section for FAQs, tips from other developers and direct discussions with our engineering team. See more at:  developer.msgme.com.

It was a great team effort these last few months and we hope you’ll enjoy the release. We’re off to the waterfront today to enjoy an afternoon of relaxation, food and cocktails in this beautiful city of San Francisco we get to call home.

Release: Msgme v2.5

We are happy to announce that the latest version of Msgme was released on Monday, May 18th. Hats off to the engineering and product teams for the long hours and late nights. I’ll buy the first round.

Highlights of the release include:

• Enhanced Message Parsing – After a deep analysis of all messaging traffic on Msgme, we’ve improved the platform parsing logic intelligence to accommodate the increasingly complex campaigns our clients are creating. The result is increased subscription conversion rates, increased campaign interaction rates and an overall better user messaging experience.
• New Plugin Architecture – We’ve added a new plugin service to the platform that allows customization of the typical message flow of established campaigns. Plugins run within the platform, allowing direct customization of Campaign Management, including tracking of all interaction and results.
• New APIs – We’ve added to our growing list of developer APIs by introducing Send-to-Friend and SMS Callback APIs. Send-to-Friend allows IVR callers or visitors to a website to send a customized IVR call to their friends introducing them to a particular promotion. The SMS Callback API allows a user to receive a callback from an IVR site after texting a mobile keyword. For more information on how to take advantage of these or other APIs, please contact your account manager or sales@msgme.com.
• Binary Enhancements – We’ve optimized our binary delivery system across all carriers after exhaustive analysis and testing of the handsets that use our platform.
• Messaging Reporting – We’ve added more details to the messaging report such as phone number and exact interaction results. Each report is exportable into .csv format for more detailed analysis within your preferred spreadsheet tool.
• Compliance Maintenance – In an effort to keep in mobile marketing compliance, and to protect the end user participants in campaigns, we’ve increased the ways a user can opt-out/unsubscribe to single or multiple campaigns. All of this follows strict Mobile Marketing Association and carrier compliance standards.
• Platform Hardware Upgrades – We’ve upgraded our server farm with faster CPUs, 64-bit processing, and increased RAM. This more than doubles our impressive message-per-second output for our larger outbound blast customers.

It was great release, and after a day or two of well deserved relaxation, we’re jumping in for v2.6. Time to do it again.

SWAT Cleared Campus, Text Messaging Kept Community In The Know

Last week’s 10-year anniversary of the Columbine tragedy – and more recent school shootings that have benefitted from lessons learned in hindsight – continue to remind us how critical timely emergency communication can be during a crisis.

Last week Napa Valley College, our very first AlertU client back in 2007, became the latest successful example of how emergency notification services can get urgent news out to an affected community, potentially averting more disastrous consequences. The college was put on lockdown when two armed men ran onto campus after allegedly robbing a West America Bank customer at gunpoint outside the bank in the Riverpark Shopping Center around 1 p.m.  Police and SWAT were immediately brought on campus to search for the suspects.

While officers combed the campus property, college officials communicated with students and faculty in real-time. The school’s emergency communication plan – which included SMS, e-mails and website posts – enabled school officials to relay news immediately, ensuring the safety of students and faculty during a campus scare. Text messages warned subscribers that armed men were on campus and that people were instructed to stayed locked in their classrooms until SWAT team members secured the area.

Several of us at Waterfall Mobile were at a favorite lunch dive in SOMA at the time, and began receiving these alerts as part of our monitoring process (we sign up for every school). We quickly called our engineering team who were back at the office monitoring the SMS message flow through our platform and out via our aggregator. It was a tense yet smooth next few hours as, like the students on campus, we continued to receive the text messages and hoped for a safe outcome.

“During last week’s emergency, AlertU was an integral part of our campus’ emergency communication plan and helped us get urgent news out to our students and faculty,” said Ken Arnold, Chief of Police at Napa Valley College. “AlertU has a simple interface that made it easy for us to post frequent updates. This is a community service that you hope to never have to use, but when you do, it’s great to know that it works just like it’s supposed to, quickly and efficiently getting emergency news out to the community.”

The first text message went out to subscribers at 1:31pm, explaining to faculty and students the situation and warning them to lock themselves in their classrooms. As the search for the suspects continued, officials updated students and faculty via text with a total of 8 messages sent over a 4-hour period. More subscribers joined the service as the day went on, with the last text going out at 5:21pm, notifying the community that the campus was clear and the suspects were in custody.

Talking to Jason (who heads up our AlertU division) after the fact, it became clear that a convergence of multiple technologies helped keep people safe. One text alert could reach 1000 people who could alert 1000 more through a tweet, an email or blog post. That’s the viral world we live in.

Through the hard work of all the security personnel involved it was a successful end to an anxious day for Napa Valley College, and we here at Waterfall Mobile and AlertU were proud to be a small part of it.

MobileMix SF 2009 and ad:tech San Francisco

If you’ll be in the San Francisco Bay Area next week, you might want to check out Mobile Mix SF 2009 and ad:tech, taking place at Moscone Convention Center from April 21 – April 23. The conference includes a virtual who’s who of executives from major brands, agencies and digital media companies.

The first day of the conference includes MobileMix, an all-day program focused on the mobile marketing industry, with panels including:

• Opening Keynote – Surveying the Mobile Landscape in 2009
• Mobile Advertising Myth Busters: It’s Easier Than You Think!
• Building Loyalty through Mobile Branding and Community Building
• Capturing Direct Response in Mobile Media: Entertainment and Publishing
• The Future of Mobile: Adding Mobile to the Mix

Representatives from Waterfall Mobile will be walking the halls and we’d love to set up a meeting if you’ll be in the area! Be sure to also check out the schedule of events.

BLOGTALKRADIO Mobile Marketing Interview Features Waterfall Mobile

For a fascinating dive into the world of mobile marketing, check out this week’s Blogtalkradio discussion titled “Mobile Marketing: What is it and how can it be used to grow your business?” The panelists include our own Matt Silk, SVP of Waterfall Mobile, and Matt is joined by three other panelists: Kim Dushinski, author of “The Mobile Marketing Handbook;” Kim Graham Lee, CEO of Vontoo; and Michael Becker, VP of Mobile Strategies at iLoop Mobile.

The interview runs a bit over sixty minutes and hits on a variety of hot topics including the advantages and disadvantages of mobile marketing, industry best practices and case studies, demographics typically targeted with mobile campaigns, the different campaigns available in the mobile marketing toolset, typical budget allocations and more. The interview is a great industry 101 for anyone new to the subject of mobile marketing but also has some great insights and marketing advice for experienced marketers as well.

You can listen to the podcast here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.