Survey: U.S. Hispanics are more dependent on mobile phones than non-Hispanics

Mobile marketing was a big focus at the Ad:Tech Miami conference today in Miami Beach, and it will continue to be discussed at tomorrow's panels. I learned of some interesting stats about how Hispanics use mobile phones differently than other groups.

Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of HipCricket, was telling me that Hispanics are more receptive to mobile marketing messages, such as opt-in text messages about products. I didn't have room to include it in my story running tomorrow about Ad:Tech, but here are a few figures he shared with me from a 2007 Mobile Marketing Association Study:

• 76 percent of all U.S. Hispanic households own more than two cellphones. Whites ranked at 74 percent, and blacks followed at 60 percent
• 32 percent of U.S. Hispanics surveyed said they would be receptive to mobile marketing messages, but more blacks -- 35 percent -- said they would be receptive to the messages. Only 23 percent of whites said they would want the messages.
• The amount of Hispanics responding to mobile marketing messages has increased 20 percent in the past year
• 55 percent of Hispanics said they couldn't live without their mobile phones, 46 percent of whites and 45 percent of blacks answered the same

Of course the increase of affordable data plans is a big help to companies like HipCricket that are in the mobile marketing business. Hasen shared data that said 25 percent of consumers have an unlimited data plan with their carrier, which is a 100 percent increase from last year.

Ad:Tech Miami kicks off Tuesday, focusing on online advertising and Hispanics

Just a heads up that I'll be covering Ad:Tech Miami tomorrow at the Miami Beach Convention Center, so stay tuned tomorrow to hear more about it. The event will address the challenges faced by marketers, executives and businesses when trying to communicate with domestic Hispanic and Latin American audiences. It's the second year of the conference, and it is the only the only digital marketing conference focused on the Hispanic community. Last year, more than 1,800 people gathered to talk about how to get a piece of the rapid growth of Latin Americans online.

Conference Schedule: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_schedule.asp

Exhibitors: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_exhibitors.aspx

Speakers: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_speakers.aspx

Sponsors: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_sponsors.aspx

Are you guilty of texting while driving? Study reveals texting habits.

Curious about the popularity of texting? Vlingo, a company that provides mobile applications that translate voice to text, has released a study on consumer text messaging habits. The survey was administered independently by Common Knowledge Research Services and sent to 4,820 people living in the U.S.

Here are some of the key points in the findings:

• Teens and 20-somethings are the biggest texting age groups, with 85 percent of each group reporting that they text. Across all generations, 55 percent of mobile phone users said they send text messages. The more interesting fact: 42 percent of all respondents said they make just as many text messages (or more) as they do phone calls.
• 34 percent of teenagers ages 13 to 19 said they send 500+ text messages a month.
• About 28 percent of mobile phone users admit to driving while texting. When you look at people in their 20s, that number jumps to 52 percent. Teenagers aren't that much better, with 50 percent saying they text while driving.
• In Florida, 25 percent of respondents admitted to texting while driving. South Carolina scored the highest, with 40 percent of people admitting to texting while driving.
• Of the 45 percent on consumers who said they don't use phones to send texts, 30 percent said it was because it was too difficult to type on a phone. Forty percent said it was because it takes too long to send a text, and 44 percent said it was too expensive.

Since Vlingo is behind this study, they also asked people if they would be interested in using a service where you could speak into the phone and have the words translated into text. About 48 percent said they would send more text messages if they could just speak the message, and 64 percent said they were willing to pay for that service.

I don't think I'd use a service like that since I have a full QWERTY keyboard on my phone. Only 10.7 percent of respondents said they had a full QWERTY keypad, and 88.9 percent said they had 12 numeric keys. Touch screen keyboards made up 2.8 percent of those surveyed.

Click here to download the full PDF report.

Is American Idol to thank for the popularity of texting?

Think back to 2003. How much were you texting? Did you have a plan that included text messages, or were you paying per text since you rarely texted people?

In 2003, AT&T began its sponsorship with American Idol, and thus began encouraging viewers to text message their votes.

AT&T sent me some interesting stats. At the end of Season 2, AT&T wireless customers sent more than 7.5 million American Idol-related text messages (which includes polls, sweepstakes entries, trivia as well as votes).

The following year, there were 13.5 million Idol-related text messages. In 2005 there were 41.5 million Idol-related texts, which was the first season after the AT&T Wireless and Cingular merger.

In 2006, that number jumped to 64.5 million.

AT&T also shared these points from 2003 customer data:

• More than one-third of all voting participants had never sent a text message as an AT&T customer before American Idol
• The number of text votes received increased by nearly 5,000 percent from the first voting episode to the last voting episodes
• Approximately 70 percent of text voters voted more than once

AT&T said they were not able to disclose the 2007 numbers, and they won't know this season's text stats until the show ends.

But have reality voting shows helped Americans embrace texting? Obviously American Idol is not the only show you can text your vote. I remember Verizon sponsored the texting in the CBS show Rock Star. And now every reality show has some texting element. Heck, even Bravo's reality shows like Top Chef have instant texting polls that serve no point other than to entertain. But there's no question - people are texting more now than ever before. I don't think Ryan Seacrest deserves all the thanks -- it probably also has to do with the increase of cheaper data plans from wireless providers.

But what about you? Did a television show motivate you to start texting? Or were you texting long before Kelly Clarkson hit the stage?

AT&T challenges college students to come up with the next great college mobile application

AT&T has announced a contest for college students and staff to come up with the mobile applications to enhance academic performance, build campus community and help improve campus security operations.

It's called the Big Mobile On Campus Challenge and ends Aug. 31st. The winner will receive a $10,000 scholarship. The two runners-up will receive a $5,000 scholarship and device of choice. (I'm guessing they'll end up picking iPhones.)

For more details about the challenge, click here.

Mobile marketing network aimed at Hispanics

HipCricket, a 4-year-old mobile marketing company based in Washington, has announced the launch of a Hispanic-focused mobile marketing network. HipCricket will work with several Hispanic media companies and brands to send out interactive messages to targeted mobile devices.

Hispanic media companies Bustos Media and Lotus Radio are among the first to join HipCricket's Hispanic marketing network. HipCricket announced the news as part of its visit to the Voz Latina Hispanic Marketing Conference on Thursday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

"Brands want a one-stop shop and an ability to tap into a network of opted-in audience or consumers," said Ivan Braiker, chief executive of HipCricket.

HipCricket has done more than 17,000 mobile marketing campaigns, and each time customers have to agree to receive the texts. The company reports that Hispanics have been among the most responsive to mobile marketing campaigns, with 32 percent saying they are interested or very interested in mobile marketing messages.

A recent M:Metrics study reports that Hispanics are among the most active mobile consumers and are more inclined to access news or information from a mobile browser than the average subscriber.

Users typically opt-in to a mobile marketing program by texting a code to a short string of five or six digits so they can receive information via text messages. Braiker said users can opt out of any mobile marketing program at any time by texting a word
such as stop or out.

"Overall I think they are going to see their experience is going to be a pleasant one. Our opt-out rate overall is just slightly over 1 percent,'' Braiker said.

Miami's Blue Dasher has photos of every South Florida street

I'm back from vacation and have a ton of e-mails to go through, but in the meantime check out my story that ran today about a Miami company named Blue Dasher Technologies that has taken 360-degree photos of every public road in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. They are working on adding other metro areas now across the country, and they plan on working with businesses that can incorporate the mapping data into other products and services.

Read it here: Miami firm maps cities with 360-degree photos.

Sprint offers an unlimited $99.99 plan that is unlimited everything

Today Sprint announced that it will now be offering a $99.99 "simply everything" plan, which allows for unlimited talk, data, GPS, web... everything. It comes just days after Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all announced their $99.99 unlimited plans last week.

But if you want everything unlimited with Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile -- like all data and web -- then you'll have to pay more than $99.99.

Nanci Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Sprint, told me today that they are offering everything unlimited because, "If you're going to offer it, offer what everybody wants."

Will Sprint's actions influence others to also add other data services into the $99.99 plan? It's likely data prices will be the next big fight between companies. Bear Stearns analyst Mike McCormack told the AP that this move by Sprint Nextel was a "Hail Mary" because the company is having a rough time now. It's earnings report released today showed a $29.5 billion loss.

What are your thoughts on the $99.99 unlimited plans everyone offers? Do you care about unlimited voice that you'll pay $100 a month to not worry about it? Are you paying more now? Or are you more of a texter that only makes a few short calls during the month?

Spread the <3 - The most popular texting holiday of the year

Thanks to text messaging, millions of people never need to share their feelings using spoken words. Just shorthand, vowel-less digital lingo will do the trick.

AT&T reports that Valentine's Day is the busiest time for texting. The wireless company said that in 2007 there was a 33 percent spike in its text messaging traffic on V-Day. In second place was Christmas with a 30 percent increase, followed by New Year's with a 26 percent increase.

A report from VeriSign says a new texting record will be made today with an estimated 2.2 billion mobile messages sent and received in North America.

I always thought New Year's Eve was the busiest, because this year when I tried to send texts out between Midnight and 2 a.m., my service failed to send anything because too many people were jamming it up sending texts. But I guess that's just a text rush in a span of a few hours, whereas today is all-day long.

AT&T came out with a list of shorthand you're likely to see today. I think they made almost all of these up. Have you ever used GNSD? or FTBOMH? I'm sorry, but if you type IMU instead of I miss you, then you're just lazy. It's not that hard to text three short words. In fact, I don't know anyone that texts me shorthand besides the classic "lol." And they don't even have I <3 U on the list, which is more popular than ILU. Well anyway, here is their list. Let me know if you've actually used any of these:

• 2G2BT (Too good to be true)
• 4EAE (Forever and ever)
• 4U (For you)
• AML (All my love)
• D8 (Date)
• FTBOMH (From the bottom of my heart)
• GNSD (Good night, sweet dreams)
• H2CUS (Hope to see you soon)
• ILU (I love you)
• IMU (I miss you)
• ISLY (I still love you)
• IWALU (I will always love you)
• KOTC (Kiss on the cheek)
• KOTL (Kiss on the lips)
• QT (Cutie)
• TY (Thank you)
• TOY (Thinking of you)
• URH (Your are hot)
• UW (You're welcome)
• XOXOXO (Hugs & Kisses)

I think XOXO is the only one on that list that people actually use. But maybe I'm just not up to speed with today's hip text lingo. Whteva.

Hey, loser! Get a job!

No, I'm not calling you a loser. But your phone is.

If you can't stick to your New Year's resolutions to quit smoking, lose weight, get a job or get out of debt, then you can download ringtones to motivate you. And no, not all are the peppy rah-rah-rah-mommy-loves-you-and-you-can-do-it motivation. It's the feel-bad-about-yourself-for-being-a-loser-and-have-an-embarrassing-ringtone-until-you change-your-habits motivation.

Hear it for yourself at www.thumbplay.com/newyears

For the lost freshman...

The network of mobile-friendly sites called the go2 College network might be something the freaked-out freshman would like to check out. You go to the site that ties in with your college (such as go2UF.com) and it has links to school resources and local movies, restaurants, and so forth.

The main page -- accessible on a regular browser -- has more tools, such as links to the campus map. It would be nice to have features like that on the mobile version. Checking a campus map on a cellphone is much better than being targeted as the lost freshman tangled in a fold-out map on the first day.

The go2 sites have potential, but I'm not sure how long the usefulness lasts. The nearby restaurant feature was pretty good for go2UF, because it gave you directions and phone numbers. And it does the same for clubs and taxi services. But to search for things like local events or sports, you have to go through a gauntlet of searching and entering zip codes. But still, might be good for freshmen to check out if they ever get stuck in their new city.

(And if you're curious, it's not just for colleges. They have go2.com for other major cities.)

Digital experiments in community news

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a Miami-based organization that supports journalism, is launching The Knight News Challenge for the second year. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, to come up with ideas on digital experiments that can transform community news.

The contest is awarding as much as $5 million this year to fund the ideas, which can use digitally delivered news and information to enhance physical communities and improve the lives of people where they live and work. I wrote about the first contest in May, which concluded with grants to 25 individuals and private and public entities ranging from MIT to MTV.

Although there is a category for commercial applications, most entries must share the software and knowledge created. This year the contest's web site will allow entrants to invite public comment that will help improve their entries. An entry form and more details are available at newschallenge.org. Applications will be accepted through Oct. 15. The foundation plans to announce the winners by the spring of 2008.

iPhone buzz at ad:tech Miami

While covering ad:tech Miami yesterday, some panelists brought up the iPhone and how advertisers are holding their breath to see if it will mark a new day in adversing on mobile phones.

Advertisers are salivating over the mobile frontier, realizing the potential of how many people they can reach on the small-small screen. What's holding them back is the fact that accessing media or the Internet on a phone just isn't very affordable, so not everyone uses it.

But if the iPhone can inspire a new generation of phones (and phone plans) that make viewing media, GPS and accessing Internet on cellphones more cool and commonplace, then it won't be long before advertisers hit a larger audience on the mobile screen.

I realize there are already SMS feeds and signing up for text messages for mobile advertising. While I was at the University of Florida, there was a program that students could sign up with their phone and get text messages of coupons and promotions of Gainesville stores. But I hated it because it was sending me so many texts that it started to become distracting. I also didn't have an unlimited text plan so the costs (although they were minimal) were adding up. But that was a couple years ago...

But can you imagine the ad possibilities when accessing information on a phone becomes cheaper? When we drive by a Starbucks, we'll get a picture message of a $1 off iced coffee coupon at that Starbucks for the next hour. And we won't mind, because text messages, video, Internet, GPS and other mobile content will be so affordable that it won't feel like we're wasting minutes or being charged to view or find these things.