Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

DIY Mobile Coupons with MixMobi

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mixmobi_logoThere’s no doubt that mobile marketing is hot right now and one of the hottest segments is mobile coupons. While there are multiple services providing the design and delivery of those coupons, Kwingo‘s Lisa Foote and her partners saw a need for a “do-it-yourself” option for businesses. Enter their new sister company MixMobi.

Currently in private beta with a public launch scheduled before the holidays, Minnov8 got a look at the new service. In an effort to develop a product that answers a need first and foremost, Foote explained that MixMobi was born out of feedback from Kwingo customers who were looking for easy production and distribution of a coupon campaign.

lisafooteShe noted that MixMobi delivers three important benefits. “Immediacy; the ability to design and deploy a coupon without the need of a graphic designer or agency. Ease; anyone can design a coupon. There are no programming skils needed. If you can send an email you can design and launch a coupon.” and finally she noted, “Reporting; once the coupon is launched tracking can begin in a matter of minutes via an easy to read dashboard.”

The MixMobi program allows for the user to log onto an account and create campaigns with the use of simple text fields, drop-down menus, and templates that can include user artwork and colors. Once the coupon and campaign are created a link to the coupon is generated. That link can be immediately deployed via Twitter, or by simply cutting and pasting the link into an SMS message, email, websites, etc. “We started with Twitter because of the ease of deployment” noted Foote. “More services are on the way.” The coupon is viewable on any web enabled device…and with the multitude of platforms out there right now, you know this is not always the easiest of feats.  (See the demo video below.)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8vLfSVuDZM

The principals at MixMobi, including Foote, Brad Roberts, and Kelly Heikilla, are looking to monetize their service in two ways. First, by targeting small to mid-size businesses who can purchase and design campaigns at varying levels of service. For example, $19.95 will allow a business to launch 2 offers per month with up to 2500 page views each. “We feel this is a very competitive price point in this space.” noted Foote. Of course, what’s a web start-up without a free-use level. MixMobi offers such a beast with one offer per month and 1000 page views.

The second road to profit for MixMobi is the targeting of large agencies or retailers who wish to purchase a software license that allows them to launch multiple campaigns across multiple brands and time frames.

The shakedown of MixMobi is privately underway with three clients and will be for at least 30 days. So far, “Feedback has been positive.” according to Foote, and she hopes to see it live in time for the holidays…which in retail terms could mean as soon as Halloween.

Analytics As a Strategy (Minnov8 + MIMA Movie)

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Here’s another of our ongoing interviews with MIMA Summit presenters. This discussion with Jennifer Veesenmeyer of Stratigent touches on her session at the Summit and the successful integration of analytics into your strategic plan…early on in the process.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo0XxmsZezM

The MIMA Summit is on October 5, 2009. Everybody who’s anybody will be there…Minnov8 will be there as well! Heads up! Registration close on October 1, 2009.

U of M Showcases It’s New Media Research Resources

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inms_logomark_whiteYet another well kept secret in Minnesota tech and media is the Institute for New Media Studies on the campus of the University of Minnesota. In an effort to reveal that secret the Institute annually hosts an event to showcase the many resources available and projects underway at the University.

Held on Friday, September 18th at the Coffman Union, though not standing room only, this year’s program was presented to an interested group and included information on projects addressing journalism, social media, gaming and art, to name a few. It also showcased the institutes facilities including focus group rooms and eye-tracking software used in site design and usability studies, as part of it’s quest to provide the ability to do more applied research.

613_nora_paulI had a chance to talk with Nora Paul, Director of New Media Studies about the goals of the gathering. “I think we’re kind of the ‘Yenta’ (referring to the matchmaking character in Fiddler on the Roof.) for the campus when it comes to new media. We try to make matches.”  she goes on to say that the event “brings together seasoned researchers with students.”

She adds that the Institute doesn’t want students, or others for that matter, to get “caught in silos” when comes to new media thinking. In line with that desire comes the offer of the resources and facilities to not only the campus community, but to the community at large to some extent. The Institute appears more than willing to collaborate with the private and education industries.

To find out more about the institute, interested parties including University faculty, staff, and students as well as professionals in the twin cities community are encouraged to join the New Media Research Network as well as follow along on Twitter, Facebook, Delicio.us and Flickr.

Minnov8 + MIMA = Movies

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As media partner for the upcoming MIMA Summit, Minnov8 has been doing some interviews with some of the presenters at this year’s gathering. Yes, there is some shamelss plugging of the October 5th event and we have a bit of fun getting into them but the topics are right on.

The first in the series of three is with Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing. Lee is all about SEO and he spent a bit of time to talk as he was headed out of town.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdfJ0wY8npo

Look for interviews with Jennifer Veesenmeyer of Stratigent and Doug Rozen from Carlson Marketing in the coming days.

“Little Seth Godin” Becomes MIMA Summit Ambassador

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sethgodinactionfigureAs the early-bird registration deadline of September 7th closes in for the annual MIMA Summit, our friends at MIMA are taking the word ‘action’ in action figure literally! Observe “Little Seth” Godin as he pops up on the internet, hides out in the Twin Cities, and most recently, visits the Minnesota State Fair.

MIMA has employed the use of a small Seth Godin action figure, acquired by MIMA Summit diva Jenn Kane, as a central figure in it’s marketing campaign. Though the concept of a marketing guy action figure is a bit disturbing (on so many levels), it’s clearly a fun way to get the word out about the October 5th event.

Check out Little Seth at the Minnesota State Fair video produced by Minneapolis video shop ThreeVolts as he sees “what’s poppin'” and looks for the ever elusive “cheese turds”. Of course, there are plenty of references to the MIMA Summit along the way…hey, it’s marketing!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj6aoiQAdvw&feature=player_profilepage

If you’re interested in free registration for the Summit this year, you might try your hand at the “Find Little Seth” game. Follow @mimasummit on Twitter for clues and you could score a ticket worth $550* or more.

The Summit looks to be a great event this year and Minnov8 will be there for the seven programming tracks, 35 sessions and the more than 40 speakers on interactive marketing trends and technology.

*non-member early-bird price

MinneDemo Joins MIMA Summit For Tech Track

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mima_logo_4cThe folks at MIMA have struck a deal with our friends at MinneBar/MinneDemo to present a Technical Track at the upcoming MIMA Summit (Of which Minnov8 is a media partner.) The track will run in conjunction with an already full slate of speakers and presentations scheduled for Monday, October 5 at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. Fundamentals, Strategy, Tactical, Trend and the MinneDemo Technical tracks will allow attendees to tailor their experience at the Summit.

minnedemo-logoAccording to notices from both MIMA and MinneDemo the track will consist of “a curated slate of entrepreneurs who will showcase their internet and web innovations and demo real working software.” The ‘Best of’ slate from past MinneDemo presentations will be featured in groups of three with Q&A time allowed throughout the day.

While one might ask, taken as a whole, what do demos such as these have to do with MIMA’s interactive marketing focus, the ability to showcase our local innovators and startup community is always welcome. MIMA President Matt Wilson, echos that sentiment. “I think a lot of our members are going to be incredibly impressed by the technology talent here in town and hopefully this added exposure will mean more development work stays here.”

Of note is the mention in the MinneDemo communication of a fall MinneDemo event to be held in November. It’s the first mention of the follow-up to May’s MinneDemo at Intermedia Arts. We’re also still awaiting news of a MinneBar. We’ll let you know as soon we hear more…

A Joint Podcast with Social Media Breakfast

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SMBMSP podcastFollowing the recent Social Media Breakfast on Friday Brad Bellaver gathered a group on the patio at Vic’s for a rather unique conversation and podcast. We had a chance to chat about the meeting and social media in general. Joining Brad and those of us from Minnov8 were founder of the Social Media Breakfast concept Bryan Person, SMBMSP founder Rick Mahn, and Marketing Edge podcast host and Provident Partners principal Albert Maruggi.

Brad graciously billed at as a joint podcast wiht the SMBMSP. But like most things, 80% of success if just showing up. Thanks for inviting us to join Brad. Catch a bit of video from the impromptu gathering at http://www.qik.com/video/2364510.

Gary Koelling Gets Personal With Radio

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I’ve written before about my involvement with the Conclave , an organization that seeks to educate radio broadcasters. This year I had the pleasure of heading up the planning of the Tech/Interactive Track at this year’s Learning Conference (#clave09), underway right now in Minneapolis. I’m thrilled that I have been able to include many of Minnesota’s tech, interactive and social media “stars” as part of the agenda.

One of those “stars” is Gary Koelling, Best Buy’s Social Media guru and founder of Blueshirt Nation, Giftag and IdeaX. I asked Gary to talk with my broadcast brethren about increasing radio’s ‘signal strength’, a phrase Gary coined during a conversation we had some time back that refers to reaching customers through social media.

I met with Gary about an hour before his presentation because he wanted to show me what he came up with. I trust Gary implicitly to put together a great presentation on this topic…and he did. No surprise! I had expected to politely preview his slides, say “Cool!” and move on.

What I experienced, and what the attendees saw was a deeply personal story reflecting Gary’s passion for this medium and what it has meant to him over the years. He told me that every time he sat down to build his presentation he found himself “yelling” at radio for what it has become. He told me, “That’s not helpful to anyone.” So what he did was take everyone through the emotional relationship he has, and I bet all of have had, with radio.

“Other stations can steal your listeners, they can’t steal your friends.”  …  [Read More…]

Changing the World at MIMA

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MIMA’s monthly gathering at the Nicollet Island Pavilion last Wednesday allowed us some great insight into the design and workings of the now fabled use of online and social media in the recent…and successful…campaign by President Barrack Obama.

Much has been made, as it should, of how this campaign took advantage of a relatively untapped medium and how it reached its audience with the message of the Democratic President. And no one had better stories to tell than Scott Thomas (SimpleScott). Scott held the position of Design Director during the Obama campaign and is currently writing a book about the experience.

Scott took to the stage armed with a confident understated attitude and a slide deck that would help him tell the story of a campaign that moved at the speed of light and expected its online efforts to move at the same pace. “We were truly building an airplane…while in flight!” noted Scott. Throughout his presentation it was obvious that the message of “Change” heralded by the Obama campaign was not just a campaign slogan limited to bumper stickers and yard signs….  [Read More…]