Hurley brings to Syniverse a successful track record driving billion-dollar growth for Fortune 500 companies in the roles of Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer.

“In this age of digital transformation, companies need networks and platforms with global, reliable and secure connectivity to communicate with their customers and to transmit mission-critical business information,” said Dean Douglas, President and CEO, Syniverse. “We’re excited to have Bill leading our efforts to deliver secure connectivity and communications solutions to our current customer base and through new channel partners.”

Hurley has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership roles at companies across hardware technology, cloud, mobility, security and IT sectors.

“I’m excited to join Syniverse as the company delivers the connectivity and messaging platforms necessary for our enterprise and mobile operator customers to pursue new opportunities across IoT, security, 5G and more. I look forward to delivering on our customers’ needs with Syniverse’s world-class solutions,” said Hurley.

Hurley holds a Master of Business Administration in finance from Fordham University and a Bachelor’s in computer science from the State University of New York at Albany.

The post Syniverse Appoints William Hurley as Chief Marketing Officer appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The collaboration will enable Listrak to integrate messaging services as part of its cross-channel offerings that include mobile engagement, email and social media marketing, and web display advertising.

“It’s vital to take advantage of multiple mobile channels to engage consumers in different ways,” said Ross Kramer, CEO, Listrak. “Our agreement with Syniverse will allow retailers to build stronger relationships with consumers through a variety of messaging use cases, like location-based marketing offers, contest competitions and reward program notifications, as well as billing and shipping updates.”

One example of Listrak’s success with messaging includes its work with fashion retailer Rainbow Shops in launching an in-store messaging program that increased its database of customer information. Through the first 10 months of the campaign, Rainbow Shops gained 25,000 weekly subscribers and saw a 92 percent email acquisition rate through its text-to-join messages.

Listrak is able to access these messaging capabilities through Syniverse’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for mobile and web applications.To learn more, click here.

The post Syniverse Enables Listrak to ‘Expand’ Mobile Marketing Services appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post by Lisa Paccione, Vice President, Americas Sales, Syniverse 

Although mobile wallet has been available on smartphones for several years for payments, it has been an underutilized asset to complement apps and other mobile communication channels in order to enable marketers to better engage with customers and boost loyalty.

While some brands have started integrating mobile wallet, most still haven’t realized the full opportunity for engagement. Mobile wallet awareness is now reaching a point where marketers can no longer afford to not fully embrace it. With this in mind, Syniverse recently completed a mobile wallet study that offers insights for marketers seeking to take greater advantage of this channel. We’ll explore some of the key findings from the study before diving into strategies for getting started with mobile wallet.

New Findings and New Directions for Mobile Wallet Use

In a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers and 1,000 U.K. consumers, we identified three critical findings:

• Nearly two thirds of respondents said they are aware of mobile wallet, and it’s available on 90 percent of smartphones today.
• Of those that have a mobile wallet in the U.S., 53 percent use it at least once a week and as many as 29 percent use it daily.
• More than half of those in the U.S. that initially did not know about mobile wallets are interested in using them.

In addition to this study, a 2017 Mobile Consumer Report shows that nearly 40 percent of smartphone users surveyed in the U.K. and U.S. currently use the non-payment portion of a mobile wallet to store information – such as offers, coupons and airline boarding passes. This promising insight is explored further in the report showing that nearly 70 percent of those surveyed believe mobile wallet offers from a brand would positively impact their view of the brand and would encourage them to make a purchase.

These findings provide important data for marketers. There is a clear market opportunity for adopting mobile wallet solutions. Based on our findings, however, one of the first steps is for brands to create awareness of wallet and educate consumers by enticing them to take advantage of mobile wallet’s benefits. Mobile wallet will offer an increasingly valuable engagement channel for those brands that create compelling strategies.

Three Strategies to Get Started

Based on this survey data and lessons learned from recent customer engagements, here are three strategies that I’ve found to be crucial for enlightening consumers about mobile wallet and getting a wallet campaign off the ground:

• Use geolocation-based offers – Using geolocation to determine when a person is near a store and reaching them with a coupon, reward, or other mobile wallet item at the “mobile moment,” when they are most likely to be making a purchasing decision, is critical. This precisely timed outreach enables brands to influence customers to act on a particular purchase as well as encourage them to shop more.
• Integrate with loyalty programs – Mobile wallet offers a particularly complementary fit with loyalty programs. Customers can immediately earn and redeem points without having to search for their physical loyalty cards or dig through their apps for information. Developing a loyalty program that integrates mobile wallet items offers a unique benefit that can spur customers to use loyalty programs more heavily and thereby shop and increase purchases.
• Bridging instore and digital – Offering mobile experiences along the customer’s instore journey through wallet can help brands boost revenue, increase efficiencies and remain agile. As one example, Chipotle Mexican Grill recently launched a mobile wallet campaign when it closed all its locations for a company-wide meeting. For customers who visited a store that was closed, Chipotle offered those customers a free burrito, redeemable through a mobile wallet coupon. The restaurant set up window signs urging customers to text a number to receive a coupon, and the response rate was unprecedented, with about 5.3 million people requesting the offer, and 3.5 million people redeeming it.

In these ways, mobile wallet offers a powerful but still underutilized engagement channel to dynamically connect with customers. The first step is to entice consumers to try mobile wallet and educate them that wallet is much more than a payment method. These three strategies here can help brands take the first steps.

The post New Data Unveils Strategies to Help You Get Started with Mobile Wallet appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post from Mary Clark, Chief Marketing Officer at Syniverse.

With 2016 coming to a close, many marketers are busy completing their plans for the new year. But today’s mobile marketing landscape has become more competitive and multifaceted than ever, causing many marketing plans to become moving targets.

To break through the noise, engage customers and reduce friction in their path to purchase, marketers are having to compete against a dizzying assortment of mobile channels vying for attention. Fortunately, a new channel has emerged to help.

A Highly Versatile Space

Mobile wallet is a channel that offers a fresh and underappreciated approach to engaging customers. This versatile tool offers a one-of-a-kind capability to seamlessly deliver coupons, rewards, tickets and payment options straight to a customer’s phone, at a place on the phone where they can easily be used. In fact, the name “mobile wallet” is somewhat of a misnomer since this tool is actually a highly versatile space that provides an open-ended publishing stream into a customer’s phone through a native application.

Mobile wallet can be leveraged for mobile marketing in a number of ways, and this flexibility and ease of use offer new levels of engagement between brands and customers. In return for customers adding a brand’s offering to their mobile wallet, brands can gain an invaluable connection for strengthening their marketing investment and leveraging this investment for deeper customer engagement and maximized ROI on overall marketing.

As the mobile marketing landscape continues to grow more cluttered and competitive, mobile wallet will offer an increasingly valuable tool that brands must take advantage of to more dynamically engage their customers.

Breaking Down the Benefits

Building the case for the use of mobile wallet is an impressive array of benefits. Let’s look at each.

• Attribution and hypertargeting – Mobile wallet offers a new level of results measurement by enabling deep visibility into customers’ preferences and patterns. Mobile wallet campaigns can be targeted to certain customer segments, set to only be operative in specific locations, programmed so they can be instantly updated, and tracked through barcodes, allowing marketers to better measure the effectiveness of campaigns. As an example, to increase in-store traffic to Chipotle restaurants, mobile marketing specialist Vibes helped the company push out a special quiz to millions of customers that offered them several personalized mobile wallet offers in return for participating in the quiz. In the end, Chipotle achieved a 20 percent mobile-wallet-offer redemption rate over the campaign’s five-week run time.
• Ease of access – As its name implies, mobile wallet integrates all coupons, passes and payment services in one “wallet” that is already pre-installed as a native app on nearly every Android and Apple smart device. Users can quickly and uniformly retrieve these items here, rather than have to go to separate apps requiring different passwords and forms of access. And, of course, mobile wallet’s payment function allows users to greatly quicken their purchasing by simply tapping their phone and swiping it across a screen, instead of having to insert and remove a plastic card in a reader.
• Real-time automatic updating – Adding to the convenience of mobile wallet’s ease of access is its automatic updating capability. Brands can seamlessly update individual users’ mobile wallet items without requiring any steps on users’ end. Even better, those updates can be automatically pushed to the device’s lock screen for immediate viewing and easy access.
• Versatile delivery and activation – When a brand’s offering is added to a customer’s mobile wallet, brands can gain an invaluable connection for strengthening their marketing investment and leveraging this investment for deeper customer engagement and maximized ROI on overall marketing. A critical component of this is the versatile number of ways that mobile wallet items can be delivered to and used or “activated” by customers. For example, a special coupon for a free beverage at a coffee bar can be delivered to a mobile wallet via text message, email, ad, app, website, social media, in-store promotion and even direct mail. In this way, brands can take advantage of a multitude of channels to drive awareness for a campaign, and customers can easily activate the offer from whichever channel they discover and prefer.
• Complement to apps – And in addition to all those channels being able to activate mobile wallet, there is another critical advantage in play. As a native application prebuilt on a phone rather than a downloaded app, mobile wallet complements apps by enabling a quick-touch experience compared with the more in-depth experience of apps. In this way, the user is able to take advantage of the best of mobile wallet’s functionality and the best of an app’s services. Moreover, mobile wallet and mobile apps can play off one another, where the mobile app can be used to deliver offers to be saved to wallet, and where the mobile wallet can be used to promote app adoption through direct links to the app store.
• Loyalty rewards – A particular area of marketing for which mobile wallet offers a tremendous opportunity is in spurring the use of mobile loyalty programs. Using mobile wallet, brands can take advantage of a new channel to engage with their most loyal customers and customers can benefit from a new channel that allows them to seamlessly earn loyalty points, check their loyalty status, and redeem rewards without having to deal with extra cards.

In many ways, these benefits are only the beginning, as mobile wallet becomes more fully utilized and gains in popularity with consumers. To maintain competitive advantage, brands must develop a strategy for integrating mobile wallet in their marketing programs and more powerfully engaging their customers.

The post Mobile Wallet Offers New Chapter in Customer Engagement appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The investment and resulting strategic partnership will enhance Syniverse’s end-to-end enterprise solutions by adding the leading “mobile-first” CRM platform in the industry, a provided statement reads.

The partnership will allow Vibes to expand its software into new global markets.

“Syniverse is proud to serve more than 1,500 mobile service providers, enterprises, ISPs and OTTs around the globe, and these customers increasingly need solutions to drive incremental business value via mobile,” said Stephen C. Gray, President and CEO of Syniverse. “Vibes has helped some of the most successful brands, including Chipotle, Home Depot and Gap, unlock additional revenue through targeted mobile marketing campaigns. Together, we are uniquely positioned to help brands around the globe reach more consumers in ways that precisely track the return on their mobile marketing spend and accelerate the shift from lower-ROI email campaigns.”

“After a thorough and deliberate process we believe Vibes is the best mobile engagement platform to scale across our global footprint,” added Gray. “We are very impressed with Vibes’ management and their technology platform. Our strategic collaboration will improve our product and presence in the enterprise markets as well as propel white-label opportunities and support for mobile network operators.”

As part of the investment, Vibes will bring to Syniverse a “scaled, CMO-friendly platform” that enhances the Marketing Cloud. Vibes also will support integration of its platform into the Syniverse customer offering with sales and go-to-market training support.

The combination of Syniverse’s capabilities and international footprint with Vibes’ platform and expertise will enable the expansion of sophisticated mobile marketing capabilities in markets around the globe.

The post Good Vibes: Syniverse to Invest $45 Million in Mobile Marketing Firm appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Through this collaboration, Tata Docomo is accessing a Syniverse solution that uses intelligent policy capabilities to allow subscribers to gain control of their data usage through prepaid data passes, volume-based data caps and high-usage alerts.

“Customer centricity and innovation are at the heart of every service that we offer to our subscribers. Our collaboration with Syniverse is the first of its kind in India’s telecom market to empower our customers to manage their experiences and costs,” says Gurinder Singh Sandhu, Head Marketing of Mobility at Tata Teleservices Ltd.

The collaboration with Tata Docomo leverages elements of Syniverse’s intelligent policy portfolio, which helps operators to drive overall profitability for the retail, wholesale and quality aspects of their businesses.

“In the face of ever-increasing competition, mobile operators are focused on increasing revenues and retaining subscribers,” said Sanjay Kasturia, Syniverse’s Vice President and Managing Director of Sales for India. “Through our intelligent policy products, we have developed a comprehensive approach to help operators differentiate their businesses.”

The post India’s Mobile Movers and Shakers Get Help Managing Money appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The event in question, if you’re not familiar, brings together more than 35,000 mobile professionals from around the globe to network and share insights throughout the event.

In the session, Mary will highlight how the increase in data generated by connected mobile devices – or “mobile context” – is transforming the way that companies and mobile operators can provide personalized services to their customers, while also expanding revenue potential.

“Mobile context is the insight into subscriber information, usage and location that mobile users opt to share with their favorite brands and mobile operators in exchange for more personalized and convenient customer experiences, and it represents a potential $44 billion annual market opportunity,” said Mary in a news release provided to MMW on Tuesday.

The post Can Big Data Be Turned into Big Money? Syniverse Thinks So appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That news comes by way of a recent Syniverse-commissioned primary research study on Asia. The research indicates that consumer brands and mobile service providers there could tap into an annual revenue opportunity of as much as $6 billion by 2019 if they subsidized mobile data services.

This would address a perennial problem in many Asian markets: people there cannot afford what are expensive data plans on their mobile phones.

“In the sponsored-data model, companies sponsor usage for specific content on behalf of subscribers of various mobile service providers, allowing subscribers to access this content without being charged for the usage,” notes a report summary shared with MMW.

The Syniverse survey queried 3,500 people in seven countries across Asia to determine attitudes of consumers there. A major finding? Consumers are “generally willing to accept the branding of content, advertising and promotional material in return for free data.”

Specifically, 62 percent of surveyed respondents said they would accept the branding of content and advertising in return for free data. About 49 percent revealed they’d be willing to accept coupon offers from data use sponsors, 42 would agree to offers from entertainment companies, and 31 percent from bars, restaurants, and cafes.

“Content providers, mobile service providers, and consumers have been stuck in a no-win situation when it comes to mobile data usage,” said Mary Clark, Chief Marketing Officer at Syniverse. “Consumers want to use more data along with richer mobile engagement, and operators and content providers are missing out on the revenue that this usage could deliver.”

The bottom line appears clear: operators and their partners should be motivated to sponsor data plans as “a way to drive revenue as well as consumer engagement.”

The post Syniverse Study: Sponsored Mobile Data Plans Could Unlock $6 Billion Market Opportunity appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is an exclusive guest contributed post to MMW by Rob Hammond, Senior Director, Mobile Engagement at Syniverse.

The ability to gain insight into consumers’ preferences and strengthen engagement through precise mobile outreach has rapidly become a must for today’s brands. This engagement is about forming personal relationships with customers through real-time interactions, and in today’s mobile world this is more possible than ever. Mobile devices have evolved into true digital assistants that are so valuable that people keep them within reach at all times.

To this end, the app, with its seeming unlimited versatility and popularity, has risen to become the centerpiece of many brands’ mobile strategies in customer engagement. Yet apps now face several challenges that diminish their use as engagement channels for gaining insights on and acting on information related to customers’ mobile context.

In observing this development, I increasingly think that our industry has reached a dysfunctional relationship with the mobile app. Over the past year, I’ve had numerous discussions with customers and companies alike about disappointing mobile app adoption, app overload, and app aggregation, and modest expectations for new mobile app deployments. Fortunately, though, our industry is self-critical and has friends that point out unhealthy relationships, and these discussions have led me to a profound observation about connecting with customers through mobile.

Ultimately, mobile isn’t about marketing or mobile apps or the Web – it’s about engagement. It’s about engaging with customers at the point of need and delivering the richest, most compelling experience possible. It’s about adding context to the interaction – mobile context. In this way, I think our singular reliance on apps for engagement will give way to broader, more inclusive thinking that includes another mobile channel, one that is proven and powerful but not fully given the credit it should be – text messaging. When we look at the state of the way we use apps today versus the way we can take advantage of the time-tested capabilities of text messaging, this becomes clear.

The App “Consumption” Process

I grant you that if I can get a user to engage through a mobile app, it should be the richest, most compelling user experience. But that’s a big “if.”

Consider for a moment the consumption process for a mobile app. First, a user goes through a discovery phase; then there is the need to learn about the app; then a user goes to the appropriate app store, searches and finds the app, installs the app; then the user accepts the user agreement, approves notifications, and approves location; and finally the user enters credentials or signs up. The user likely already has 50 apps that fill the first two screens and thus has consolidated apps in groups. This is not an easy, low-friction consumption process!

What’s more, the utility of the app itself is diminished as notifications are marginalized with small icons or back pages, or the app is just deleted. Equally challenging is engaging customers before the app is installed or during stalled installations, encouraging waning usage, and re-engaging with users after they stop using the app. How does a brand engage with an app “user” when the user is not using the app?

And, finally, apps are now competing with pictures, entertainment and the operating system itself for space on the device. Processor, battery life and memory are limited assets causing consumers to choose between upgrades, apps, photos and songs. When it comes down to a family photo or an app, the app is going to lose.

Revisiting Text Messaging

Despite the proliferation of apps and increasing sophistication of smartphones, text messaging continues to offer one of the most ubiquitous and reliable mobile interactions. In a mobile world of multiple devices, operating systems and service providers, messaging is the one common denominator through which all mobile devices communicate.

According to a Forbes compilation of 50 essential mobile marketing facts, 96 percent of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery. Despite periodic news reports speculating on the decline of messaging, this channel continues to be the silent workhorse of mobile and will continue to offer an unmatched foundation on which companies can anchor their mobile strategy. Today’s text-messaging solutions enable the delivery of everything from simple text messages to short video ads, empowering companies to deliver a range of personalized, time-sensitive content, including reminders, notifications, sales promotions, public safety alerts, photos, videos and audio clips.

But with great access comes great responsibility. Text messaging is the most personal and the highest-priority interaction medium for consumers, and for this reason a brand must place the consumer at the center of the communication. Opt-ins are a regulatory requirement in many regions and are a best practice everywhere.

Another critical aspect of text messaging is that it’s not just important as a communication method in and of itself. More significantly, it serves as a springboard that can bridge mobile users to rich Web experiences. For example, a text message can include links to drive a user to a rub-off game, an app download, a video, or even something like a ticket that can be added in a user’s Passbook account. In this way, messaging can serve as a crucial tip of the spear in spurring engagement.

Where We Go From Here

Today’s mobile users increasingly want engagement in real time and in context to their usage. The app has been the singular focus of many brands’ mobile interactions. The app is a necessary part of a mature marketing program, but it is not sufficient. Text messaging, on the other hand, continues to offer one of the most ubiquitous and reliable mobile interaction options, with the versatility to engage consumers through a wide range of content formats. To reach customers and have your message read its clear text-messaging is the one communication method marketers can’t ignore.

The post Text Messaging: The Notification That Can’t Be Ignored appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This effort comes, Syniverse says, as mobile penetration in China nears 50 percent of the population and estimations for smartphone shipments are set at 450 million for this year.

According to a statement provided to MMW by a representative for Syniverse:

In a first innovation of its kind for any Amazon region, mobile-only consumers in China are able to register for the service without providing an email address. As a trusted intermediary with over 25 years’ experience serving the mobile ecosystem, Syniverse has been selected to support the growth of Amazon’s mobile-first Chinese customer base through the addition of two-way mobile messaging customer engagement programs.

All told, this is the first time that Amazon.cn will be able to engage with its customers in two-way interaction via SMS.

“With Syniverse,” the company explains, “Amazon.cn can provide a more engaging, personalized experience for mobile customers through keyword campaigns and promotions that enable users to opt in to receive timely, relevant offers alongside traditional push notifications and messages.”

The post Syniverse Teams with Amazon China to Optimize Mobile Customer Engagement appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.