Let’s play a game.

Do you see that woman over there watching Perks of Being a Wallflower on her tablet? Yeah, the one with the Vera Bradley handbag and Star Magazine? We’ll bet you her tablet is a Nook.

What about that super tall 30-something guy leaning against his sports car over there? The one Tweeting on his tablet about the new 3D action movie he just saw? If anyone here has a Google/Android tablet, it’s that dude.

And that middle-aged mom with the cat leaving the Verizon store and getting into her SUV? See that tablet she is using to read Perez Hilton? There’s a good chance it’s a Kindle Fire.

Over the past few months, we identified over 25,000 tablet owners online, using our polling application that is spread across hundreds of websites, and segmented all of these people based on the brand of tablet they primarily use. We then analyzed thousands of other characteristics we’ve cataloged to find the ones that were most common among users of the different devices (we use a combination of chi-square and Tschuprow’s-T coefficients, for the geeks keeping score at home). What we found were a handful of clear profile types that stand out among the leading tablet brands.

Let’s first look at tablet users in general. Depending on whether you count e-readers in the category, roughly a third of US consumers over age 13 currently own a tablet. No big surprise, the typical tablet owner is significantly more likely to be under age 44 and 89% more likely to fall into a higher income bracket. They’re better-educated than average, live in the suburbs, and vote in almost every election. They’re 14% more likely than non-owners to exercise regularly, they spend more than 12 hours per week on the Internet, get their cable news from CNN, and are 2X more likely to use Twitter. All of this passes a basic smell test, right?

Putting our little game aside, the truth is that if you see a non-descript person on the street staring at their tablet, it’s more likely to be an iPad than anything else. Apple still dominates the brand market with about 50% of the overall category. It’s a far drop to the Kindle at less than half that. As a result, the iPad user looks the most like the typical tablet user described above, but on steroids.

iPad users are 7% more likely than non-owners to be male and 2X more likely to fall in a higher income bracket. They’re 16% more likely to be a registered Republican (and 50% more likely to be a political donor), 65% more likely to have a Graduate degree, 65% more likely to go to the movies regularly, and 24% more likely to drive an SUV. They’re actually LESS likely than other tablet users to be on Twitter but also 22% more likely to spend a ton of time on Facebook. If they own a pet, they’re 11% more likely than other people to own a dog. An iPad user is over 30% more likely to say they are taller than most other people their age and gender, which might explain why they are 31% more likely to choose an aisle seat when they fly. They’re the most likely of all tablet owners to subscribe to a print newspaper.

Now, let’s dig a little deeper into the challenger brands mentioned above. Kindle users are 14% more likely to be female and 27% more likely to fall between the ages of 35 and 44. They’re 74% more likely to shop on the internet with regularity but the least likely of all tablet owners to buy organic. They are 41% more likely to read “paparazzi” blogs every day and 10% more likely to consider themselves at least somewhat overweight, owing perhaps to the fact that they exercise less than iPad users. Kindle users are 21% more likely to say they are “somewhat shorter” than most people their age or gender.

Android/Google tablet users are the most likely to be male, at a full 13% greater likelihood than non-users. They fall in a larger age bracket, somewhere between 18 and 44, and are 23% more likely to describe themselves as a Night Owl. They’re the most likely consumers to go to the movies regularly, 73% more likely than non-users to be exact. When they go to the movies, they are 32% more likely to prefer action movies over other genres, and 61% more likely to watch a 3D film if it’s available. They’re 33% more likely to drive a sports car, 54% more likely to prefer Walmart over Target, and 50% more likely to have Sprint as their wireless carrier. Even more dramatic than iPad users, Android/Google tablet users are 85% more likely to say they are “much taller” than most people their age or gender.

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With over 750,000 apps in both the iTunes App Store and Google Play, the bar for an app is extremely high.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes in Mobile App Marketing

Mobile has changed the landscape of consumerism in a few short years by becoming our favorite tool for reading the news, watching television, communicating, socializing, shopping, making decisions, navigating…for just about everything!

As a marketer, mobile is a very powerful place for you to connect with your audience.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. Since mobile is such a personal medium, it is the easiest place for marketers to make massive mistakes that will turn off a customer forever.

We’re here to help you avoid making those mistakes. Here’s what you should be looking out for and what you can learn from those who have come before you:

1. Treating the mobile experience like it’s the desktop

Too many mobile experiences are just smaller versions of the brand’s desktop, enabling the exact same functionality, and trying to shrink it down to the small screen. Yet, a mobile app is an entirely different vehicle for experiences, and it should be treated differently for the new opportunities it provides.

A mobile customer will quickly discard overwhelming designs that mimic desktop content page-for-page. It’s fairly common to assume that a customer will input as much information on the mobile device as they do on the desktop. But input is much more time consuming on mobile devices, and it’s important to design with that in mind. The reality is that the small screen can be a blessing, as it enables you to focus on what is truly important.

Beyond design, mobile provides uniquely powerful abilities. For example, mobile apps have the benefit of being able to know where we are all the time. It makes our lives easier when we can tap a button, be located on a map, and then be shown all gas stations, Vietnamese restaurants, Macy’s stores, or bus stops near us.
What you can do:

Simplify your customers’ lives by focusing their attention on the few things that truly matter. If you already have a desktop site or app, pare down the functionality to a few core tasks. Then learn from your customers about what they really miss from your desktop version. You might be surprised to find that they don’t notice anything is missing.

“The font game” mobile app is a great example of design that is mobile optimized. With its large buttons, visual appeal, and emphasis on just the core features on the main page, this app is truly fit for mobile.

Optimized mobile app design in “the font game”

2. Building an app without a plan for marketing it

At this point, we’ve all heard the amazing download numbers coming out of the app stores. But that aggregate number doesn’t mean your app will garner huge downloads just by publishing it in the app store. Companies with existing web presences and audiences can take advantage of their assets to properly market and promote a new app.

Even though your website landing page shouldn’t be an overwhelming advertisement for your mobile app, when your customers visit your website, they should know that there’s an optimized mobile app available as well.

Read the Rest of the Article Here

Pollie Awards

The American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) awarded JC-Evans, Inc. with three Pollie Awards this past weekend for television and radio spots produced in the last election cycle. Esquire magazine has called the Pollies “the Oscars of political advertising.”

A Gold Award was given for the television spot “Empty Chair,” which was produced for an organization opposing former State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for Mayor of San Diego.

Produced jointly with San Diego-based Sunshine Strategy, “Empty Chair” poked fun at Fletcher’s attendance record in the legislature.

“Jennifer Jacobs of Sunshine Strategy came up with the idea of playing off the famous ‘Bueller… Bueller…’ scene from the movie ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” commented Jeff Evans, CEO of JC-Evans, Inc. “It was a great concept, and fit perfectly with our client’s goal of having a unique and memorable spot. We pulled together a talented team for this project including our illustrator Christee Curran, voice over talent Bob Nathan and Joyce Scolnick, audio engineer Mike Brunswick and editor Dutch Falconi.”

The spot aired on broadcast and cable stations in the weeks leading up to the San Diego Mayoral Primary.

 
Evans’ firm also won two Pollie Awards for radio production in the same Mayoral race.

The first spot “Get Out and Vote for DeMaio” is a jazzy jingle that utilized the talents of Bay area musician and vocalist Marsh Brodeur. “Our client wanted something unique and different that would stand out from the typical political noise,” noted Evans. “Marsh was able to deliver a fantastic vocal and musical performance that helped us deliver a positive message in the closing days of the campaign.”

“The Man” featured the talents of Brad Temmen of Wisted Productions. “Brad helped us bring an edgier more contemporary feel to this spot,” continued Evans. “Again, we were trying to stand out with something that was not your typical political commercial and we’re very pleased with how this turned out.”

The American Association of Political Consultants hosts the annual Pollie Awards and Conference. The Pollie Awards are the most prestigious awards in the field of political campaign and public affairs industry, in which the AAPC recognizes the best in the business of political professionals.

The AAPC seeks to set the standards of conduct for political and public affairs consulting through its Code of Professional Ethics. The AAPC is the only organization in its field with a code of ethics for political professionalism.

With nearly 11,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this is truly an honor.

“Empty Chair” was a spot produced for a political group opposing Nathan Fletcher for Mayor of San Diego.  It highlighted Fletcher’s poor attendance record in the  State Legislature by poking fun in a “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” parody of the iconic Ben Stein scene: “Bueller… Bueller…”

The Telly Awards was founded in 1979 and is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online commercials, video and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

For its 34th season, The Telly Awards once again joined forces with YouTube to give the public the power to view and rate videos submitted as part of the People’s Telly Awards. In addition to recognition from the Silver Telly Council, the judging panel that selects the Telly Awards winners, the Internet community helps decide the People’s Telly Awards winners.

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards. “

To find out more about the Telly Awards visit our website at www.tellyawards.com.

Can you get your head around these? I personally like the sentence “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”

 

Martha Brockenbrough, founder of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, started National Grammar Day in 2008. Since then it has been held every year on March 4th, a date that also happens to be a complete sentence (March forth!). It is celebrated in various ways: There is a haiku contest, an anagram unscrambling contest, and even an official song.

 

That’s all good clean fun. Some people, however, like to use the holiday as an excuse to engage in what Kory Stamper calls “vigilante peeving.” Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster who knows from good grammar, dreads the way the holiday seems to encourage the shaming of others for their mistakes, or, as she calls it, “asshattery in the name of grammar.” (Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.)

 

This Grammar Day, let’s not look at grammar as a cold, harsh mistress. She can also be a fun, kooky aunt. Here are some tricks you can do to make crazy sounding sentences that are still grammatical.

 

1. One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.

 

Take advantage of the fact that the same sentence can have two different structures. This famous joke from Groucho Marx assumes that most people expect the structure of the first part to be

 

One morning [I shot an elephant] [in my pajamas].

 

But another possible, and perfectly grammatical, reading is

 

One morning [I shot] [an elephant in my pajamas].

 

2. The horse raced past the barn fell.

 

Make a garden path sentence. In this one, we think we’ve reached the main verb when we get to “raced,” but instead we are still inside a reduced relative clause. Reduced relative clauses let us say, “the speech given this morning” instead of “the speech that was given this morning” or, in this case “the horse raced past the barn” instead of “the horse that was raced past the barn.”

 

3. The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.

 

Another garden path sentence, this one depends on the fact that “complex,” “houses,” and “married” can serve as different parts of speech. Here, “complex” is a noun (a housing complex) instead of an adjective, “houses” is a verb instead of a noun, and “married” is an adjective instead of the past tense of a verb.

 

4. The rat the cat the dog chased killed ate the malt.

 

Make a sentence with multiple center embeddings. We usually have no problem putting one clause inside another in English. We can take “the rat ate the malt” and stick in more information to make “the rat the cat killed ate the malt.” But the more clauses we add in, the harder it gets to understand the sentence. In this case, the rat ate the malt. After that it was killed by a cat. That cat had been chased by a dog. The grammar of the sentence is fine. The style, not so good.

 

5. Anyone who feels that if so-many more students whom we haven’t actually admitted are sitting in on the course than ones we have that the room had to be changed, then probably auditors will have to be excluded, is likely to agree that the curriculum needs revision.

 

Another crazy center-embedded sentence. Can you figure it out? Start with “anyone who feels X is likely to agree.” Then go to “anyone who feels if X then Y is likely to agree.” Then fill out the X and Y. You might need a pencil and paper.

 

6. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

 

Buffalo! It’s a noun! It’s a city! It’s a verb (meaning “to intimidate”)! We’ve discussed the notorious buffalo sentence before, but it never stops being fun. It plays on reduced relative clauses, different part-of-speech readings of the same word, and center embedding, all in the same sentence. Stare at it until you get the following meaning: “Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community, also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.”

 

Read the full text here.

The campaign also unveiled virtual phone bank technology developed by JC-Evans and Voterlink that allows volunteers to make phone calls to voters from the comfort of their own homes.

The apps can be downloaded here.

Here are some mind-blowing mobile marketing stats from an infographic by Smart Media Tips:

• 33% of mobile users prefer text-message advertising.
• 10x is the rate of redemption of mobile coupons vs. traditional coupons.
• 8 trillion text messages will be sent in 2013.

Many businesses and organizations already have mobile marketing strategies in place.  If you don’t, it’s not too late.   We can provide you with a wide array of mobile marketing solutions, from mobile apps, mobile compatible websites, and an All-In-One Marketing platform that offers a variety of mobile marketing tools for sending out your message via SMS or MMS and engaging your audience through innovative features like multi-channel voting and text-to-screen.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey in late 2012 that found young adults are more likely than others to use major social media. In addition, other groups are more interested in different services and sites.

Do not just drag them into the project folder like below.

Download a PDF of this Quick Tip