Envisioning 2.0

I’m always on the look-out for interesting marketing campaigns using digital technology, especially mobile phones. This is why I was happy to come across a new mobile campaign launched by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America designed to augment the impact of their teen and parent-targeted anti-drug campaign.  According to Media Post:

“The pro bono effort uses banner ads from two ongoing interactive efforts–the teen-oriented “Check Yourself” and the parent-aimed “Time to Talk”–reformatted to work on mobile platforms. Once they are at the mobile WAP sites, parents can sign up to receive their first “talk tip” via text message, and teens can use the Check Yourself site to examine their relationship with drugs and alcohol and share the site with friends via text messaging.”

Because the campaign will run for three months, we can expect to receive information about it’s impact fairly soon.  To learn more about the campaign, please see this MediaPost article.

I was turned on to a lengthy eight-part blog post focusing on the death of “viral marketing” by my friend and fellow Amherst grad, Mike Arauz from the folks at MIT.  He’s written a response/reaction to the posts by Henry Jenkins and his colleagues that’s well worth your time.  And, when you have about an hour to spare, read (and cogitate on) the original series by Jenkins.

Devices like the iPhone are taking the world by storm and igniting the once-moribund mobile Internet market.  Lots of people are discovering the joys of being able to access the Internet from anywhere.

As exciting as these developments are, there are some signs that marketers may be moving quickly to take advantage of the mobile phone’s rich capabilities, but paying less attention to privacy concerns.  According to an article published in today’s New York Times:

“Advertisers are eager to use [behavioral and psychographic] information for much more specific targeting . . . An advertising system could know, for instance, that someone is 27 years old, male, a New England Patriots fan (which NFL.com can track), plays Blackjack, travels frequently between Boston and New York on weekdays (which applications using GPS can track) and uses a 3G iPhone. That would make him attractive to a host of advertisers, like the Delta Shuttle or a Las Vegas hotel, whose ads would appear while the consumer was browsing the Web on his phone.”

I believe that having in-depth information about a target population can help us better understand their preferences, attitudes and beliefs.  However, marketers should figure out ways to educate people on how their information is used or allow them to opt-in to take part in this type of research.

This is why I am happy the Mobile Marketing Association is updating its policies and procedures for effective and ethical mobile research and marketing.  If marketers don’t take steps to self-regulate their activities and demonstrate they are operating in an ethical matter, regulators and public officials will step in.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton began a health reform process that he hoped would expand coverage to many of the nation’s uninsured.  He said that his proposal would reduce health costs, increase our health security and preserve Americans’ choice of medical providers.  Nearly a year later, Clinton’s effort to pass comprehensive health reform had ended.  It had fallen prey to a number of outside factors, including a significant lack of public support for his agenda.

Today, more than 15 years later, another Democratic President is launching an effort to overhaul the US health system.  Today, during a white house conference on health reform attended by politicians, health industry insiders and others, President Obama said:

“In this [health] effort, every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There should be no sacred cows. Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect. If that’s the measure, we will never get anything done. But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential.”

Obama has also taken steps to build momentum for reform by increasing funding for the children’s health insurance program (SHICP) and allocating money in the federal budget for a new health insurance scheme.  By focusing on the costs for a program first, he has removed one major objection to reform.

However, by saying that he wants to get “something” done rather than insisting that a reform bill be perfect he is clearly willing to undergo a process of give and take with others in an effort to solve the problem of the uninsured.  Nearly everyone agrees that we need to do more to increase the ranks of the insured.  What we disagree on is how to do it.

One thing is certain, Obama is a very popular president who has already shown great ability to mobilize a grassroots army in support of his proposals.  I’m looking forward to seeing how he and his advisors use them.

Image Source: HealthReform.gov