Being touted as a ‘cost-per-visit’ model, Starbucks is using Loopt to let consumers check-in various stores and win real-world prizes, coupons, and even play with friends. Currently the Loop applications is available for the iPhone and iPod touch and Mobile Commerce Daily reports that other brands like Gap, Burger King, and Universal Music Group are also using Loopt’s mobile social networking rewards game.

[By the way, you can check out a list of mobile dating apps here]

Rather than pay for impression-based advertising, mobile social check-in rewards programs have the potential to drive customers into sales and actually make them become more loyal. When a customer checks-in, the brand’s logo even appears on the user’s Facebook page. Right now the Loopt service has partnerships with every major US wireless carrier and more than 3 million users are registered. I know I will register as soon as I get the new 4G iPhone.

Read the rest of this article at MobileCommerce.

Bon Mercado, mobile ads product specialist at Google, gave some great advice featured in MobileMarketer earlier this month. Mr. Mercado says that the same best practices that have been applied to desktop campaigns are also relevant for mobile. He also suggest beginning with a three step approach to launching a mobile campaign. Here they are:

• First campaign consists of the advertiser’s brand terms
• The second campaign is the advertiser’s highest converting terms that have developed from PC campaigns.
• The third campaign should be a “volume” campaign based on some high traffic words from the mobile space.

[By the way, here are 5 easy steps to track mobile visitors to your website]

Per Mr. Mercado, before brands create mobile-only campaigns, they should ask themselves a few questions:

• Do I want to increase my mobile traffic volume?

• Do I have a mobile product, optimized site or feature that I would like to promote different from desktop?

• Do I want to manage my mobile bids separately from my desktop bids?

• Do I want to control my mobile communication separately from my desktop messaging?

• Do I want to run separate reports on my mobile campaigns?

• Do I want to be able to optimize mobile conversions?

Feel free to read the rest of the article here.

Without great friends I would have never been able to launch FoneGigs or FoneWars. I am going to do my best to make this job board a success and here’s what you can do to help. I appreciate anything and everything you’re able to do!!

1. Post a Job!

I would be honored if you chose to post a mobile marketing / app developer related job on FoneGigs.com. Remember, if you feel like you overpaid for posting a job, I will PayPal reimburse you for any amount above what you think it is worth.

2. Email

Email everyone! Word-of-mouth is one of the best recommendations anyone can receive. It would be great if you could email your friends and tell them about FoneGigs – a job board where they can find the latest Mobile Marketing and App Developer Jobs.

Need help? Here’s is a suggested email you can send: “Eric Melchor has just created a job board that’s soon to become a popular Mobile Marketing job search site. The website is FoneGigs.com. You may have heard of FoneGigs via FoneWars – where mobile phones battle each other and you decide who wins. Eric is also a media professional and has created a site, SmartDigitalSpending.com, for advertisers that helps enhance their campaigns using data analysis.

3. Facebook

Facebook has become a great place to tell friends about interesting and new stuff! Anything you are able to post on your own Facebook page about FoneGigs or FoneWars, either your thoughts about the site or about FoneWars, would be greatly appreciated! Please join our Facebook fan page! Facebook and share it with your friends! IMPORTANT: Sharing our Facebook fan page with your friends and encouraging them to also become a fan can be one of the best ways to spread the word for “FoneWars” to become a huge success!!

4. Tweet

If you have a Twitter account, tweet about FoneGigs. Some tweet topics include ‘If you like mobile advertising, you can find jobs in the mobile marketing industry at #FoneGigs’, ‘At Last! #FoneGigs lists dozens of mobile app developer jobs!’. You can follow Eric on Twitter at: @fonegigs too.

5. Word of Mouth

No rocket science here – tell co-workers, friends, family, and people on the street: “You can find the latest jobs in the Mobile Marketing industry at FoneGigs”. You can also tell them “You can recruit experienced mobile advertising professionals and app developers at FoneGigs”. Thanks!

5+ things you can do to help coming soon…

The YOC Group in Europe has created a new type of advertising for mobile phones. They are calling it the Splash Screen Ad. While a mobile application is charging, a splash screen ad is shown. This allows brands to use the time it takes for a program to charge to communicate with their target group. Once the app is charged, the ad goes away which does not make it intrusive.

Who is YOC?  YOC is a full service mobile advertising company that specializes on running campaigns across any mobile channel from local to international. It also helps brands to mobilise, creating optimised versions of websites, portals and content.

[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]

Curious about that album cover (for those of us who are old enough to know what albums are), or maybe you are on the run and saw a movie poster on a wall and would like to know more about it? Take out your mobile and snap a pic of products, print ads, and anything else and see what digital content related to the object comes up. Instead of doing a search, Kooaba allows you to connect real-world objects with digital information by simply taking a picture with your mobile phone camera. In their words – think of a mouse click in the real world.

Kooaba also powers Paperboy. With Paperboy, you can take a picture of an article, newspaper, magazine and share the content with friends. The application will also bring up other related content. I have to admit, this image recognition technology sounds pretty cool. Smart visuals they are calling it. See a video example of how it works below.

[By the way, we can alert you when FoneWars (iPhone battles Android) starts. Just follow FoneGigs on Twitter or Facebook!]

Traveling to Cancun, visiting Dracula’s castle, or going to watch the French Open? You can have any of these locations for an image as your mobile wallpaper by simply sliding your finger around a map or typing in the address. The wallpaper can also reappear when you arrive at your destination courtesy of the Android app GeoPix. Select the wallpaper you want, either from your own library or from the GeoPix extensive database of pictures. For example, you are shown a University’s logo or a photo of a landmark as soon as you arrive at the destination.

[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]

One cool thing about this is that the database of pictures will continuously grow. So, it is possible for photos of friends whose addresses have been stored, to be displayed when the user visits them at this location. To download GeoPix for free, please search for GeoPix on your Android phone, or text GEOPIX to 69937 “MYXER.” Myxer is the company that created GeoPix and they have had much success in the mobile content space having delivered over 1 billion ringtones. Users can also create their own ringtones and wallpapers from music and files a customer already owns.

Instead of merely just telling your friends you were at a bar, event or the race track, why not check-in with a picture? The new Mopho social photography check-in app allows you to geotag photos and add comments or ratings to them. Imagine this, you are at a party and you take some pics that are automatically posted to your Facebook account (guess you will have to make sure that they are pics you wouldn’t want your Mom to see). The app is based on a free iPhone app as well as Mopho’s website. So, photos are not only sent to your friends, but also the MoPho website. Right now it is available on the iPhone. Check it out here.

[By the way, we can alert you when FoneWars (iPhone battles Android) starts. Just follow FoneGigs on Twitter or Facebook!]

Mobile Apps Marketing 101

Smashing Magazine released a fantastic article about Marketing Your Mobile App. The article was written by Michael Flarup who is an interface designer based in Copenhagen. Competing against 150,000 apps in the App Store and counting, Michael provides great ideas for marketing your mobile app. What does it take to get good media coverage? How do you get people to talk about your app? How do you get people to buy your app?

Michael says the first thing is to be unique. Yes that may seem like common sense, but it is important to be the first developer in your category of product or you reinvent the existing category with something unique. Remember that whoopee cushion app that was a hit? Within days there were a few copycats in the market. There are hundreds of developers who are out to make a quick dollar, so it is important to be first or so unique that it will take a while before anyone can duplicate your efforts.

[By the way, did you know you can receive notices for Mobile Marketing and Mobile App Developer jobs from FoneGigs.com? Join us on FB, Twitter, or LinkedIn now!]

Michael further explains that when marketing a mobile app, one should be tweetable, be interesting, cater to blogs, think like media, control the hype, and launch big. Read the full article here.

Interested in location-based dating?

Get possible date alerts in real-time on your phone. Just set up your phone and create your dating profile. As you move around, meetMoi updates your location in real-time. You decide who sees your profile and what information you share.

Launched in London and hopefully will be available across the pond, Streetspark is like “Foursquare for dating”. When there is a suitable match or ‘spark’ nearby, you are alerted in real-time. Streetspark has plans to integrate both Foursquare’s API and Facebook’s Open Graph to help provide more relevant matches and match people with friends of friends. After checking out the other person’s profile, and if both users decide to chat using the secure chat service, users can decide to meetup – mobile dating free and spontaneous! This gives people a reason to put on some decent clothes, groom, and bathe every day! Gotta love it. Streetspark just may be the best invention ever if it motivates the general public to get out there, lose some weight, and dress properly. The app currently works on the iPhone and is currently being tested on Blackberry and Android. Check out the StreetSpark video below.

If you are straight, then you can skip to the next app. If you are gay, then Grindr is the app for you. This mobile dating free app uses location-based technology to help you meet guys in your area. See pictures, stats, and map locations in seconds. Grindr is the largest all male location-based mobile social networking tool available. Have fun.

See a list of Check-in Apps here

Will Apple fans have a mobile dating free app to turn to? Launching in June 2010, Cupidtino is a dating site created for fans of Apple products. No news yet on whether or not this will be a location-based dating site, but we do know that it will be exclusively on Apple platforms – Safari, iPhone, and iPad apps. So far they have 12,000 people who have signed up. I guess we will have to wait and see if this will be a location-based dating site or not.

Lovestruck is another online singles network that is working on providing real-time location based single ads. It is working with mobile ad servicing company Admob to make this possible and currently works on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

HowAboutWe allows users to connect with singles in their area based on the places they want to go for dates. The app features real-time access to thousands of nearby date ideas from local singles. Quite different than other dating sites, worth checking out.

What SinglesAroundMe does that other smart phone apps don’t do, is offers access to communities of singles worldwide, opening up unlimited opportunities for serendipity for the world traveller. But it also works on your own doorstep too. Launched just six months ago, SAM is quickly gaining market share, with loads of users from London to L.A. and down under in Australia.

The first thing that might come to your mind when you are about to implement 2D codes into your marketing strategy is “Yes! Finally there is a way to measure outdoor media.” True a barcode 2D imprinted on outdoor billboards, posters, magazine ads, and newspaper ads can provide some kind of measurement as to how well these channels are working, but the real benefit of utilizing 2D codes is that these codes can instantly transform traditional media into a multi-media experience. People can interact with your brand through the use of mobile technology as opposed to only seeing advertisements. Moreover, a 2D barcode is a very innovative and entertaining way to increase brand favorability and can be executed at a low budget. Here is an example.

Find all the latest Mobile Marketing jobs at FoneGigs.com

Suppose you are a movie producer and have spent millions of dollars marketing your movie (lets pretend the movie you are releasing is Avatar) with commercials, radio, print, magazine and online ads. Another movie producer is also releasing her movie (we can pretend it is the Matrix), but has spent significantly less money marketing her movie. However, she did implement one marketing tactic that was cost efficient and innovative.

What did she do?

She simply placed 2D codes on movie posters with a call-to-action of “Scan the code to see the trailer!” So, on opening weekend, thousands of people across the country are standing in line waiting to buy movie tickets and are checking out the movie posters. A movie goer notices the barcode 2D on the Matrix poster and since they are waiting in line, they have time to scan the barcode 2D and check out the trailer. The Matrix trailer happens to be kick ass and has won over the hearts and minds of movie goers who were undecided about which film to see. Do you see how impactful 2D codes can be?

Link to 5 easy steps to implement a QR Code Campaign

Thanks!

Eric Melchor, Founder – FoneGigs – The FIRST job board dedicated to Mobile Marketing and Mobile Application Developer Jobs.