My post last week about Chase Banks Mobile Text-2-Win campaign has created a bit of conversation on and off the web.
Its a text message campaign to win US Open Tennis tickets.
For those of you that do not remember I praised Chase for stepping up to the mobile marketing platform but criticized the campaign for its lack of interaction and conversation.
After sending the text message “WIN” to “CHASE” and loosing you basically reached a dead end. No mention of Chase’s mobile services are even mentioned. My past post is much more informative.
Well looks like someone from Chase read the post. The text message reply which once read
Sorry, try again tomorrow. No purch reqd. For a sure way to get tkts go to chase.com/tickets. Quit? Txt STOPWIN. Help? Txt HELPWIN. Other chgs may apply.
Now reads
Try again tomorrow. No purch nec. Quit? txt STOP WIN. Help? Txt HELPWIN. Other chgs may apply. Chase Mobile - Text UR account. It texts you back. Chase.com/mobile.
Now they got my attention! What is this Chase Mobile> If I have a Chase account I may try this out? But what do I text? My account number? hmmmmm I do not know how I feel about that. But anyways, its goo to know people are listening.
Would have been nice if the website they provided was linkable to a mobile webpage.
And why did they get rid of explaining the other way to win tickets? I still that they should have added a “text back your zip-code to find out where the nearest Chase bank is and ask them how else you can win tickets.” That would be cool. And would justify a two text return. And also a good way to collect information.
This post is about a company that has used Mobile Marketing in a wonderful way. Its also about pushing the envelope. Chase Bank has long been a sponsor of the US Open (Tennis not Golf). Last year they had a very interesting marketing campaign in which you could win free tickets by simply using their ATM Machine’s (I know the ‘M” in ATM stands for “machine” and I am being repetitive). Anyways, a lucky withdrawer simply needed to pay attention to his or her receipt. If there was a blue tennis ball in the logo then you just one free tickets. If it didn’t then you just won your own money (and a surcharge if Chase was not your bank).
From a marketing perspective Chase was ingeniously tapping “incentive marketing” while creating an interaction with Chases most used service, that being ATMs. It forced people to GO TO a Chase location, possibly even walk into a bank, possibly even converse with a Chase employee and possibly even see all the things that Chase has to offer.
This year Chase is going the incentives marketing route again but this time via what appears to heavy mobile play. An interesting choice do to all the hype around mobile technology and commerce as of late and Chase’s advertisements showing text message account alerts. But thats just my way of telling you that Chase has a functional mobile play for a latter point. As I was saying, from June 9th to August 9th all over New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, ads on top of taxi cabs, on bus shelters, on payphone kiosks, on billboards and in the subways Chase advertisements are drawing your attention (in text speak) to send the text message “Win” to the shortcode “CHASE (24273) for a chance to win free tickets to the Open. The exact reading being something like “Tennis ne1?” or “Cu @ the Open” followed by a much smaller print saying
“You could win US Open Tickets.
Text ‘Win’ to Chase (24273) Now”
Chase will immediately text back entrants to notify them if they’ve won or lost.
First off, I have to tell you that I have seen these advertisement for a while now but for some reason the text speak threw me off and I ignored them. I thought it was an advertisement for technical data base enterprise solutions mumbo jumbo. Nevertheless, adding the numerical value to the Shortcode “Chase” is a sure sign that the interactive marketing people at Chase have done their homework. The numbers without what they spell-out no would not be remembered. And just saying “Text ‘Win’ to CHASE” would have been to confusing. Text win to Chase what, I might ask? What am a chasing? A leprechaun? An Elephant on safari? The American dream? But they did it right and they deserve a bravo for that.
As to where these ads appear I found it a little troublesome. The first place I saw this add was while driving down the NJ Turnpike at 70 miles an hour. This is where I first ignored the signs as a tech advertisement. When I began to realize what they were saying (my interest sparked by catching the word “Text” and the semblance of a shortcode) I did not have enough time to take out my phone and remember what or how to text even though I slowed down to 60 miles an hour to try and do so (do not try this, I am a texting expert). Simply put, put these banner adds where there is a lot of standstill congestion. In NY its not to hard to fine. And it will give people something to do.
The adds on top of taxi cabs work for the most part, when you are standing in front of a parked one that is. But by the time I saw the advertisement and told myself ‘lets do it this time,’ the cab was already 5 blocks away. Once I got into a cab that had the advert on top and I stopped to take a minute to text but, in typical New York fashion, the cab driver told me to more or less get in or out of the cab. I was hoping to see an advert for it on the new TVs they have in the back of cabs now-a-days but no luck. Thats when I would have time to do this.
Finally I began to come across the ads on the subway platforms and trains. Finally I whipped out my phone, opened the text message app…entered the short code, entered ‘Win” but alas no cell found cell signal underground (a problem soon to be solved).
The subway stops and payphone adds work just fine although… if you have a cell phone that you are going to send the text message from what do you need a pay phone for
Chase also is also providing information about the ticket giveaway on ATM screen messages, in brochures at bank branches and with statement inserts. So, advertisements at Chase banks do exist but I have not noticed as many and, unlike like last years ATM campaign, there is nothing about the text messaging incentive campaign that drives me to a Chase bank to look at them.
And that is what I am getting at here. My main wonder about the campaign has nothing to do really with the placement of their advertisements. Although if they used more keywords other than “Win” they could track which ads were more effected, and that would be interesting. Nevertheless, for the most part they work, eventually. My wonderment is what, beyond product placement, does this text message campaign do for Chase?
Its important to point out that the text-to-win campaign does not stand alone. There is a chance to win Open tickets by opening a Chase Free Checking account with direct deposit with a minimum $500 deposit or depositing $15,000 into an existing savings account or brokerage account. Additional tickets to the Men’s and Women’s finals, semi-finals and quarterfinals are also available for larger deposits. But that is a far cry more demanding than the from the ATM withdrawal of yesteryear.
The mobile medium and text messaging are part of the New Media way of marketing… its about using the tools to create conversations and interactions that in the end draw people toward your brand physically and/ or digitally.
According to Chase spokesman Michael Fusco the promotion is a great way “to highlight our mobile banking service, Chase Mobile.”
Other than the fact that it is a mobile campaign that uses the shortcode “Chase” lets see what he means.
When I texted ‘Win’ to CHASE (24373) I got the following message:
Sorry, try again tomorrow. No purch reqd. For a sure way to get tkts go to chase.com/tickets. Quit? Txt STOPWIN. Help? Txt HELPWIN. Other chgs may apply.
Lets break down this text message for a second.
“Sorry, try again tomorrow.” - Ok I get it, I lost.
No purch reqd. - Purchase what? I do not have to purchase a ticket to win a ticket? Thats good.
For a sure way… - By the time I am in front of my computer I have already forgotten this and probably just went to the US Open website to get tickets. The webpage in the text is not even linkable (which is a good thing since I doubt it will bring me to a mobile webpage. And there is nothing about the making a deposit way to win…. get me while I am out an about and near a Chase bank. Not when I am home on my computer… unless I can open a checking account online and get free tickets that way. Winners, by the way, will also be directed to Chase.com/tckets to redeem their prize.
Quit? - Now, I know that they have to put this in their text as part of Mobile Marketing Guidelines but still it begs the question What am I quitting? I thought I was just entering a text and win contest are you going to send me more information (aka SMS spam) on what Chase can do to my phone? Damn straight I will quit.
Help? Again I realize that this is needed to comply with MMA guidelines. So I was curious. I did it. I texted ‘STOPWIN’. Here is what I got [my comments in brackets]:
Chase: Reply text to enter.[Didn’t I already do this and was told to try again tomorrow?] Questions? See Rules/FAQ’s at chase.com/tickets. [Again, not linkable] Quit? Txt STOPWIN. Other charges may apply. [What? To quit?]
The point here is not to chastise their use of text space, which is not perfect but gets by ok. Hey I understand that 160 characters is a limited amount of space. The point here is to express wonderment at how Chase is using a tool with such great possibilities of marketing interaction-ability without any other types of interaction or conversation concerning Chase products or banks. While they are creating conversation in the sense I am talking about how many people are really going to make the connection to Chase’s mobile offerings? The only web reference has no mobile web link and the reply text message provides no opportunity for any other Chase goodness to come about where I am standing with the phone in hand. After texting in to win nothing about it is, in a sense, mobile.
A text message campaign should always be interactive and ubiquitous. It should always have something to do with where I am and the fact that I am mobile. In the end it should pull me into a willing and deeper interaction and conversation and tie in together the brand and brand product. It it must do this organically.It must be organic. It must not be about the company or the product but about the user and the product. It must let me share, interact and act upon or comment upon if I want to. If it is not something that I can act on or follow through on immediately wherever I am with my phone then it is a dead message. And text-to-win will soon become a novelty that that will ware off.
While the campaign itself is a hint or, as Fusco put it a “highlight” of Chase Mobile service, no other mobile tie in is apparent and their is no mention or pull toward a conversation of Chase’s Mobile Banking offerings. The bank is, however, promoting its mobile banking options through a $70 million campaign begun this year that includes television commercials pitching Chase Mobile and texting for balances and transactions. Perhaps I do not watch enough television but its has bin a while since I have seen one of those ads. Hopefully, from now till August they have a more than just 3 second announcement at the end of the text to win campaign.
Do not get me wrong, I think its wonderful that Chase is using a Text-to-Win strategy. And they are doing a great job of getting me to text them wherever I am for the chance to win something. I am just disappointed that that is all it is. That after that nothing happens. The the return message is static.
Unlike their ATM-to-Win campaign (which included anyone who could use an ATM machine and did not require a deposit of 500 dollars to a free checking account) the Text-To-Win message does not draw me into Chase. It seems more like a dead end product placement for my phone, a sort of “hey look at us, we are hip, we get the new technology sort of play.” Which is fine and a step in the right direction. But, with the ATM campaign I had to walk into a Chase. After getting the (loosing) text message I simply put the phone in my pocket and go about my day. A missed opprtunity.
I just wish it could have been more and better tied in all that mobile marketing and the wonderful stuff that Chase Mobile has to offer (its really is a great and innovative product).
This post is already to long but if anyone asks in the comment section bellow I would be happy to share some thoughts as to how else they could have leveraged this. How about, for example, texting in your zip code to get the nearest Chase branch to inquire on more ways to get a free ticket. Or better yet allowing people to reply to the short code via a mobile devices many upload-able media ways.
In the meantime I will leave it with this: Mobile marketing is not a good stand alone strategy… as an always on technology it works best when it is tied into other new media and social marketing plays. Its not about putting all of Chase services on a phone or Chase using a phone. Its about how Chase can best leverage the mobile medium for an already existing product or campaign in order to drive more interest and interaction with Chase. In this case Chase leveraged the mobile phone for their already existing US Open Product placement. After that the conversation and interaction stops, which is a shame since Chase has so much more, on the mobile end, to offer.
By the way, if you are a winner then everything I just said above goes right out the door. With the exception of winning, I am not pulled into Chase any deeper. When I unscrewed a Coke cap to look underneath it to see if I am I winner at least I got to partake of the refreshing sugar water beverage if I was not. With my loosing text message I am only left with a kind of negative feeling since I did not win and was left with nothing else to do but the sterile assurance that I can by tickets or get more info at Chase.com/tickets if and when I get in-front of a computer. With that the campaign ends. Doomed to the static product placement grave that is the “erase this message” option. Not a good place to end a “conversation.”
There’s a big hole in online payments that I wanted to blog about. Small payments of a few USD are expensive to receive. Visa charges 20¢ to process any transaction fee and PayPal can charge 30¢. Apple offers digital goods priced at $1, but, if you notice your iTunes bill, it’s really careful to batch your purchases. For example, you might buy a couple songs one day, but Apple will wait a little while to see if you’re going to buy more later in the week. Eventually, iTunes aggregates all of your charges and bills you for the songs you bought, but it only pays the 20¢ to Visa once. Companies like BitPass and Peppercoin have thought to batch across merchants, and Amazon’s Flexible Payment Solutions and PayPal take advantage of their scales. Completely independent of the consumer, there’s still a compelling reason for merchants not to offer online goods for low prices, so what could happen if that weren’t the case? As for now, small transactions are expensive. Even offline, the consumer’s options are limited. If the merchant will only accept cash for a $5 purchase because of the same reasons online, it is very time expensive for the consumer when considering the amount of time that goes into 1/20<sup>th</sup> of a trip to the ATM.
Security problems are emerging, too. Because of phishing – mass spam asking the recipients to validate their PayPal account information and taking them to high quality replications of the real site – and opportunity to launder funds from stolen creidt cards, merchants are finding charge-back issues to be an expensive use of resource. (<a href=”http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/12696/”>PayPal co-founder/ CTO Max Levchin worked heroically</a> and famously towards identifying laundering activity in real-time.) Many American websites have turned off payment access of American Express in China, and several websites block IP addresses from India.
Most importantly, recent and continued internet usage growth in emerging markets presents the greatest challenges for interactivity online yet. Credit doesn’t exist on the majority of this planet. While the first markets to adapt to internet usage have adults with credit histories, there is a problem still outstanding. The upper-middleclass teenager sitting in an emerging market internet café, knowing exactly what it is that he wants to do online, cannot get the cash that is in his pocket into an online platform. Forget for now how he might collect modest payment for some small service online that he could perform – or all of the two-way opportunities that could open up if PayPal could reach the underbanked, why can’t this kid make this payment?
The payment space for this use case is limited to bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal, premium SMS, gift cards, and advertising. Credit card and PayPal account holders have bank accounts, which do not have prevalence in markets where commercial banking doesn’t serve a broad user base. Premium SMS has some clever use in online payment. It requires a direct bind with each mobile operator; the consequence is that premium SMS aggregators sit on top of one another in order to gain full coverage of just one region; to reach a significant number of markets, a merchandiser has to give up 35-70% of the revenue in the long cash flow chain of premium SMS aggregators. Additionally, though the operator’s revenue share seems immodest, it finances customer support for problems related to disconnects in service billing and fulfillment, reoccurring charges (anything from intended, unintended, unintended and inherited to fraudulent), and voice/ SMS revenue from cannibalization because there are no remaining balance requirements.
Where credit cards don’t have reach, SIM cards do.
At the same time that emerging market PC shipments and internet usage have started catching up, the virtual goods space online has developed into <a href=”http://gigaom.com/2007/06/24/making-real-money-from-virtual-goods” mce_href=”http://gigaom.com/2007/06/24/making-real-money-from-virtual-goods”>an impressive market</a> (multi-billion USD in 2007). Interestingly enough, the unanticipated viral growth of virtual worlds and social network sites creates new interaction across different demographics that have never had connected with one another before. Fotolog is an American photo sharing site that unintentionally gained the plurality of its 30+ million users in South America, while Google’s Orkut has become popular in India (though, presumably, not by design). From an academic standpoint, it might be interesting to examine what characteristics are common to two regions (previously unlinked and unassociated with one another) to bind them together in penetration of one website and not another. More straightforward to examine is that there are revenue models designed for the developed world that are not translating as well for the emerging markets.
Fotolog’s South American conversion rate of paid user to total users is not as favorable as that for the United States. However, whenever Fotolog’s been able to maintain local marketing partnerships that allow users to pay for credits for goods in person, Fotolog sees its conversion rate in that area asymptote towards the US level.
In the developed world, Fotolog’s introduction of using premium SMS for billing in Spain and Portugal quintupled its revenue from these areas, doubling its total revenue and indicating that internet access has spread to people with disposable income who lack means to make payment in more places than just geography indicates. Susan Wu, a west coast venture capitalist, <a href=”http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/” mce_href=”http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/”>describes</a> Gaia Online employing three people to open envelopes of cash (from American teenagers, presumably).
Monetizing the online usage growth is not easy. If there are 1.2 billion internet users and only 600 million credit card holders, then there must be a lot of people getting online (and either paying to do or working somewhere that allows for this) who can’t make online payments.
It gets worse. In the developed world, internet users have gotten accustomed to receiving services in exchange for their eyeballs viewing ads that yield the site its revenue. Not at all to be patronizing, but the eyeballs in the emerging market aren’t worth the same. If the internet user cannot make a payment online, then the scope of who wants to advertise to him narrows pretty quickly. The only interested party would be one that has a brand to build in order to sell the internet user something offline. That’s not zero – besides local supermarket chains, you have large international consumer goods companies), but it’s a smaller pool of potential advertisers than in the incumbent internet using market.
In a related note, Google and Yahoo charge IP addresses for premium services in geographies where advertisers are harder to find. Like the local aggregator of farmed virtual gold, even Google and Yahoo concede leaving money on the table when confronted with this problem.
I’ve been trying something out that I figured I’d share and see if any one has any advice or comments. In summary, cell phone + larger battery cover + contactless credit card (e.g. Visa PayPass, AmEx Express Pay) = mobile payment enabled cell phone. In other words, I’ve been trying to make my own version of the converged mobile device/wallet by inserting a contactless payment credit card into my phone. I’ve tried just about all the major credit cards and their contactless payment solutions (I’m now on Express Pay) and haven’t really gotten one that can 1. fit in my phone after being trimmed down 2. reach the contactless payment terminal through the battery cover. If any one has any thoughts please do share in comments, and I’ll keep trying and post an update if I’m successful.
If you are not from California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia or Washington then you may not know it but tonight’s Mega Million lottery jackpot is 370 million. I have never played the lottery but since everyone at work was talking about it I decided to peruse the Mega Millions website to learn a little more. Thats when something struck me as a missed opportunity for an obvious mobile opportunity.
Mega Millions offers you the ability to sign up for email alerts and have all the results of the Mega Millions drawing sent right to your email address. Now, my first thought was why don’t they offer a premium SMS service providing you with the same ability to get the numbers sent right to your phone. But then I started thinking about it and thought why not create a service that does one better and text messages you whether you just plain out won or lost (I guess the same thing could be done for email).
Here is how it would work. When you buy a lottery ticket or tickets you also provide your email address or cell phone number or both. Your number and or email address only gets stored in the data base for this drawing and then gets erased unless you choose otherwise. Your numbers are thus associated with your email and or phone numbers. If your numbers are selected or a certain number of your numbers are selected you receive a text message telling you the good news along with the winning numbers and or the numbers that you won a little of the pool from.
This could also all be online where people sign up for the SMS and Email service online and enter the numbers they have picked or where picked for them and get alerted via that means.
Nevertheless, If none of your numbers are selected then you simply get a text that reminds you of the days of looking under the cap of soda bottles “Sorry, you are not a winner.” And then just to rub it in it displays the calling numbers.
The service could be premium or free, that depends on various business model strategies… but I am sorry, its just such an obvious idea I am surprised its not being offered. But then again, based on the mobile marketing drive here in the US maybe I am not.
I am sure now some one will approach them for this but if some one from Mega Millions reads this just remember where you first heard it from
The UK arm of Amnesty International has decided to try another route by recently launching a digital wallet service to allow you to donate to them via your mobile phone. Instead of sending a text message to a premium sms number (short code) you’ll be able to use PayPal rival LUUP to donate directly to them. Apparently the lower costs of doing things this way will let them gain an extra 15% on donations.
The first Amnesty International campaign where it will be possible to donate using LUUP will be related to a crisis campaign highlighting atrocities perpetrated against the people of Darfur. Launched today, this campaign will focus on the abuse of women’s rights in Darfur where rapes perpetrated by the state backed militia, the Janjawid, are a daily occurrence. Donations to the campaign will help Amnesty International to lobby the United Nations and the government of Sudan to deliver an effective peace-keeping force in the region as soon as possible.
The two day launch event brought Cingular, Citibank and Mastercard customers from around the city to one of the speciality winter cafe’s set up in Bryant park (the park behind the New York Public library) for some hot chocolate, snacks and a new NFC phone.
Besides a few little bumps in getting the WAP push through to my phone to download the credit card information technology into the NFC chip in the Nokia 6126 they gave me the process went pretty smoothly. It was simply a mater of putting my SIM card into the new phone, making sure my registration was correct, receiving a WAP push, downloading the application, transferring my contacts to the phone and I was good to go.
The NFC chip actually sits on the front end of the Nokia flip phone which appears, from how I have been using it so far, to be the logical ergo-dynamic placement. The phone has to be on in order for the chip to be read (which is weird when you consider that a key fab is not something thats needs to be on ALL the time). But this is probably because of long term Buying Based Over The Air Marketing schemes that such a technology makes possible.
The Nokia 6126 with the NFC chip is a Cingular branded phone. Information about the chip and or its tag detection sit on top of the home screen which is comforting. The NFC application also gives you a couple of choices in terms of how you would like to handle your mobile commerce experience. The secure element setting allows me to either keep the chip always active (which means all I have to do swipe), in “ask first” mode (which asks if I want to make the payment after I swipe) and “ask for passcode” which asks you to enter a pin like number after every time you use the phone for payments.
I have to admit. I have had the phone for a week now and it is very very very convenient. I have been using it on the 6 train NYC subway system and at Duane Reade’s. I find my self wishing that more places used it. I mean, it makes sense and is very convenient. My phone is usually already out (or the easiest thing to grab) when I am paying for small things.
But credit card machines are not the only “tags” the NFC chip reads. All around the floor where various posters with tags that allowed your phone to access various promotional material but just holding your phone up to the icon. Holding my phone up to the icon on a “Because I Said So” movie poster pushed a message onto my phone asking me if I wanted to go to a WAP address which, when I say yes, brings me to a page where I can download the move trailer, ringtones and other promotional material. According to the people there we will start seeing this at Regal movie theaters and Cingular stores thought the city. Other examples of material that is experimenting with this are Zagat, Citibank (of course) and other LBS tinkerings.
I think that it is undoubtedly the case that this type NFC tag reading will become the real world connection technology of the future. It makes so much more sense and is so much less cumbersome then say, mobile bar-code readers. I just hold the phone of to the tag (which can be placed on ANYTHING) and whatever a barcode reader could do the NFC chip can do as well (as well as pay for the product later, which can create an interesting statistic to look at, in terms of how many people looked at your product and then bought it etc etc).
But one of the even more interesting feature that I spotted on the phone was a section called “Transmit To Tag.” It took a few people before anyone could tell me what it was. The phone info pop up tell me that it “allows you to transmit information to a tag. e.g. text message , call request, business card or bookmark.” At first I thought that this would be a way to send info from my phone by tapping it against the NFC chip of another phone (a feature that would be cool, but that is not what it is). Essentially, the “transmit to tag” function allows a user to program his / her own blank tag(s) with contact data, a URL, text message, or call initiation. That could be REALLY interesting in terms of allowing people to create their own “grassroot” tags for what ever purposes they see fit.
So. just imagine, your business card data is written to a tag using the phone. The tag gets attached to the back of a real business card. Someone than taps his or her NFC handset on your business card and the data is automatically placed in his phones contact list. No typing or bluetooth exchanges sync ups. Just tap and go.
Or just use the phone to create a tag that when tapped will download a promotional ringtone or movie trailer or to initiate an SMS when tapped. This could be used to vote for a favorite music video via SMS for example.
All in all its good to finally see this thing up and running over here in the States. Its an obvious idea that I think we will see more and more demand from as more people see it in action and expect and understand that they can get so much more out of their phone.
If there is one thing I hate it is carrying a bag. But I don’t really have a choice… I at least need my wallet, keys, and phone when I leave the house. I pine for the day I just need to look after one item in my pocket… no bag… no keys… no bulky wallet.
During MoMoDC’s roundtable “Bluetooth is so last year,†we talked about the vast array of possibilities near-field communications (NFC) opens: shorter lines at immigration, the metro, and shopping counters. Greg Barback, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and I passed around an example of MasterCard’s PayPass, a NFC payment solution. PayPass allows payment by simply holding the devise near card reader: No swiping, no signing, no fuss.
While the technology is amazing, PayPass is only accepted at a few locations and used by a mere 13 million Americans. But, before your dream of not carrying a bag dissipates, you should know that Cingualr, Nokia, and PayPass have teamed up to offer contactless payments via your mobile phone! A trial group of Citibank account holders with Cingular Wireless accounts have already been selected. The participants will receive a Nokia handset with PayPass built in. By simply holding their phone near the card reader, trial participants will be able to make purchases wherever MasterCard’s PayPass is accepted. The payment is then deducted from the cell phone subscriber’s account. If the test goes well, we just may have to bring these three to MoMoDC soon!
Are you interested in a new and cool way to use your mobile phone? Citi is offering this opportunity to a very limited number of customers so read on.
Over the next few months Citi will be testing a convenient and secure way to use a mobile phone to buy things and get information. Do you want to be one of the few to test this new technology? And you will even receive a reward to participate in this beta test. All you need to do is click on the link below for more information.
Did Citibank know that one of the customers is a mobile blogger? No, this is not Citibank’s mobile banking application rumored to be in the works…(insiders have told me that they are working on a Quicken like application for the phone). And no it is not the first bank in the US to jump on the mobile banking idea. Chase has, at least in their commercials, been providing bank account SMS alerts for some time now.
So, like the Metrocard Speed Fab (mobile payment tags) Citibank has teamed up with Mastercard and Cingular to test mobile payments and more. Participants in the New York test will receive a special mobile phone that is not available anywhere else (the phone on the webpage is a Nokia), have the ability to pay for all sorts of purchases with just a tap of their phone and get access to special events and exclusive content from sponsors. Users will also be able to download entertainment content at smart posters displaying the trial symbol (shown above next to the Citi logo).
So the phones will probably have the same chip thats in the payment tags only being a phone instead of a stick at the end of your keychain this creates the opportunity for a lot more “interaction” to take place… whatever that means.
I will let you know what happens when I get it and swipe my phone to pay at the nearest PayPass cooperating venue.
Perhaps the Mobile Banking application will be on it as well.
My post last week about Chase Banks Mobile Text-2-Win campaign has created a bit of conversation on and off the web.
I’ve been trying something out that I figured I’d share and see if any one has any advice or comments. In summary, cell phone + larger battery cover + contactless credit card (e.g. Visa PayPass, AmEx Express Pay) = mobile payment enabled cell phone. In other words, I’ve been trying to make my own version of the converged mobile device/wallet by inserting a contactless payment credit card into my phone. I’ve tried just about all the major credit cards and their contactless payment solutions (I’m now on Express Pay) and haven’t really gotten one that can 1. fit in my phone after being trimmed down 2. reach the contactless payment terminal through the battery cover. If any one has any thoughts please do share in comments, and I’ll keep trying and post an update if I’m successful.
