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Ah, Philadelphia in July! The heat index has crossed over the 100 degree mark, humidity is hovering around 80 percent, and I’m just too sluggish to be overly serious in my musings about the industry right now. Instead, please join me while I ponder the bright and shiny area of mobile content. You see, I’ve finally grown fed up with my outdated mobile phone—not to mention my carrier’s continual late delivery of voice mails and text messages. And given that my love for texting has reached critical mass, I’m excited about the many bells and whistles that allow mobile users to access oh-so-critical information on the run.
For example, the last time I read a Harlequin romance book was about four years ago when I was sitting on the beach in Ship Bottom, N.J., stealing from the stack my friend Christy brought for her vacation reading. With a new cell phone and a Verizon service package, however, this year I could tell her to forget the books and bring more shoes. Harlequin Enterprises now offers customers Harlequin On the Go, a mobile content service that delivers romance stories in installments, celebrity games, polls and more, daily to subscribers’ cell phones. The cost is $2.49 per month, and simple step-by-step sign-up/cancel service directions on the Harlequin Web site make it easy to get the service without the worry that this agreement means endless love.
If your idea of romance is the latest score on the Baltimore Orioles game—it was for me when Cal Ripken, Jr. was still playing—then Mobile ESPN has a phone for you. Actually, make that two phones. In February, the sports media giant released a Sanyo cell phone that features a special “E” button owners can push to receive the latest sports information; just last month, its Samsung ACE became available, also with one-touch content access and cooler features like Bluetooth technology and a slimmer design. For the old-school texters like me, ESPN still offers SMS-triggered delivery of scores and news.
Hearing about these two media companies’ mobile offerings make me wonder what other mobile goodies might be in store. To receive any information on a daily (or more frequent) basis via your Treo, BlackBerry or Razr, you’ve got to have a true affinity for the subject matter. I remember a speaker at the Donnelley Marketing Privacy Forum a few years back reminding attendees that not every company needs a customer e-newsletter. How many people would care to receive an e-mail newsletter about butter, he hypothesized. Is there really that much to say about butter on a daily or weekly basis?
I’ll let you know when I get my new tricked out celly.
For example, the last time I read a Harlequin romance book was about four years ago when I was sitting on the beach in Ship Bottom, N.J., stealing from the stack my friend Christy brought for her vacation reading. With a new cell phone and a Verizon service package, however, this year I could tell her to forget the books and bring more shoes. Harlequin Enterprises now offers customers Harlequin On the Go, a mobile content service that delivers romance stories in installments, celebrity games, polls and more, daily to subscribers’ cell phones. The cost is $2.49 per month, and simple step-by-step sign-up/cancel service directions on the Harlequin Web site make it easy to get the service without the worry that this agreement means endless love.
If your idea of romance is the latest score on the Baltimore Orioles game—it was for me when Cal Ripken, Jr. was still playing—then Mobile ESPN has a phone for you. Actually, make that two phones. In February, the sports media giant released a Sanyo cell phone that features a special “E” button owners can push to receive the latest sports information; just last month, its Samsung ACE became available, also with one-touch content access and cooler features like Bluetooth technology and a slimmer design. For the old-school texters like me, ESPN still offers SMS-triggered delivery of scores and news.
Hearing about these two media companies’ mobile offerings make me wonder what other mobile goodies might be in store. To receive any information on a daily (or more frequent) basis via your Treo, BlackBerry or Razr, you’ve got to have a true affinity for the subject matter. I remember a speaker at the Donnelley Marketing Privacy Forum a few years back reminding attendees that not every company needs a customer e-newsletter. How many people would care to receive an e-mail newsletter about butter, he hypothesized. Is there really that much to say about butter on a daily or weekly basis?
I’ll let you know when I get my new tricked out celly.
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