Irrelevant?

In an article published last week by Tod Sacerdoti at Online Video Insider,   it is  claimed that video is totally irrelevant for mobile advertising.  Although some experts say that mobile advertising doesn’t follow the rules of traditional advertising, I still think that one picture says more than thousand words. The effectiveness of visual communications has been proved ever since the times of the first printed advertisements in the XIX Century, so why it should it be different for mobile campaigns? In times when one is able to stream any kind of visual materials, visual communication is a strong weapon for achieving effective communication, it provides a way to help people understand ideas in an ever increasingly  complex world. Also  when words might have different meanings, to different people,  a visual aid could contribute to convey an idea in a more accurately.
I am going to use the example of an advertising that I ran across last  week when I was using my Blackberry, surfing the web looking for an article on Higher Education.  “Case 39, 10.01.10” was the title.  That title might have  different meanings,  I wasn’t sure if that was an American expression or a case cited in a new legislation proposal. To my foreign eye,  these few words didn’t make any sense , and what is worse, they were not even selling anything to me. I clicked on the title and I had access to a short video, it was the advertising campaign for a horror movie. These movies are popular during October in this country, so probably, if I were American,  I should assume, reading that chain of words and numbers,  that the ad was talking about of one of the new typical Halloween season movies. Watching the video I immediately felt  tempted to go to watch this movie , the first thing in October 1^st. 
 Although watching the video,  I realized  that it was  a remake  of “The exorcist”  or “The prophecy”  icons of horror genre,  I must admit  that the video was so good that it motivated me to consume a service of entertainment that I had not in mind.  Mr Sacerdoti claims that advertisers shouldn’t bother in developing campaigns for certain type of computer,  browser or location, because mobile advertising must deliver effective communication regardless of the media. Mr.  Sacerdoti is an expert, but   I am not totally sure that “the experience of viewing the ad doesn't change the way it's consumed or performs.”, as he says.
Although massive is the word for mobile marketing, massive does not always means effective, it is true that with a plain simple and standard text one may reach a larger audience, however,  not all the audience will feel attracted by plain and boring words. Quoting Sacerdoti “IPhone and Android inventory becoming "video-enabled" is the equivalent of the video industry growing” , so nowadays, when the simplest mobile phones are equipped with the technology  to  record and play pictures and videos, why not to exploit the effectiveness of an attractive video to stimulate the interest of audiences?  Particularly when what we are selling is a visual product. 

 http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.printFriendly&art_aid=136214

Healthy Marketing?

Mobile marketing is soaring. Every day it is used to promote a wide range of articles, from cosmetics to real states. Mobile marketing is growing rampantly and although it is annoying to be constantly targeted by marketers using these intensive campaigns, it is also true that this massive flow of information allows consumers to be aware of new products and other innovations that are available in the market.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute Conducted  research among physicians and consumers of health services to measure the acceptance of these mobile technologies that are designed to enhance remote contact of patients with physicians and other health care services providers.

The study shows that almost half of the consumers would pay for remote monitoring devices, patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes would be able to send information to their physicians, allowing them to monitor the status of important measurements such as glucose levels and take immediate actions when necessary.  There is an important benefit to this mobile monitoring, mainly the convenience for physicians to make faster and more accurate decisions as they have access to real-time data. In addition medication and treatment management strategies might benefit from these remote interactions; physicians will be able to prescribe medication wirelessly, making the treatment process more efficient.  

In addition to the market of remote monitoring devices which is calculated to be as much as 43 billion dollars, the convenience of this kind of remote patient-physician contact could represent significant savings in health care costs for thousands of individuals, who will save in face-to-face doctor appointments and also improve the use of physicians’ time. This remote monitoring will not necessarily substitute the personal interaction of patient with physician, but may result in a decrease of unnecessary visits and could be replaced by lower costs of medical services provided through mobile technology using a fixed periodical fee.

 In spite of  the obvious benefits of the utilization of this technology, issues of privacy/security represent continuing and significant concerns. There is concern that this information becomes available to insurance companies.  Is it possible that the costs of insurance policies will be based on the results of data mining of confidential information made available in the cyberspace?

A serious question is whether this technology will result in the commodization of health care rather than being a professional service?  Is it possible that physicians will urge patients to aquire  remote monitoring services to patients who won’t be necessarily benefit from this technology?

Soon we will see the asthma and diabetes treatments marketed through SMS just like any any other product? 

What do you think?

 Sources

Health care unwired. New business models delivering care anywhere. Retrieved September 12, 2010.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/lib/9599.pdf

Tsirulnik, Giselle. Mobile technology can lower healthcare costs: PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mobile Marketer website. Retrieved September 12, 2010.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/7302.html

Globalization and Academia

In the late 60's the Beatles wrote a song named land of milk and honey, it is not a song of my time, i am not so old, but probably my parents hear it when they were dataing, however, the lyrics reminds me of this country.


This is the land of Milk and Honey
This is the land of sun and song and
This is the world of good and plenty
Humble and proud and young and strong and
This is the place where the hopes of the homeless
and the dreams of the lost combine
This is the land that heaven blessed and
This lovely land is mine

Well this might be the Beatles land, I don't think they were talking about my land (Mexico) but it express an admiration for the blessed land. As a temporary visitor in this American land I am everyday more surprised about the greatness of this country, this land of honey and milk, is also called the country of the efficiency, everything works here, energy, transportation, industry, financial systems, you name it. United States is the first economy in the world and although China is getting close , I believe the leadership of American companies in business and industry still have a lot to give to the rest of the world. However, there is something I have seen while living and studying here, some Americans never have been exposed to international experiences, specially in the Academic aspect. Although higher education has become rampantly global, countries like Saudi Arabia and China are using federal funds to educate abroad their youths, I don't see the same encouragement in America. Brookings Institution Press published an article named "Academic globalization should be welcomed, not feared" . Ben Wildavsky. January 15,2010

http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/0115_globalization_wildavsky.aspx that talks about this global speeding in education. This article shows some interesting statistics, i.e. 3 million people currently study outside their country, the student mobility has increased a 57% in the last decade and United States is the promised land for international studies. Thousands of students are moving to United States every year to acquire Masters Degrees and PhD to return home and work in local industry and universities. But what happen with American students, why American students do not show interest for studying business or sciences outside United States borders? Wouldn't be interesting to know how the world functions outside American borders? wouldn’t' this international experience collaborate to the understanding of the new globalization? I invite my American classmates to express your comments about this new era of academic globalization.