New Tech for Successful Marketing Campaigns: A Conversation with Mobivity's Dave Galante
by Stephanie Cox | Last Updated: Nov 20, 2018
Lumavate's VP of Marketing, Stephanie Cox: You started your career in mobile in the late 90’s. What do you think has been the biggest change that you've seen?
Mobivity's SVP of Product Marketing, Dave Galante: Well I think that the hardware has definitely gotten really interesting. Recently things like NFC being built into the hardware makes it easy for companies to extend the mobile experience besides just the camera or even Bluetooth. So I think combining a lot of really interesting hardware advancements in the platform and then creating easy to use SDKs to access that really made some interesting use cases come to life.
SC: I know you’ve mentioned that Starbucks is a stand-out for mobile engagement in the restaurant industry. What do you think they’re doing that puts them ahead of the pack?
DG: Starbucks came back with a technology that people really thought was dead, and that was QR codes. I think they've really broken the mold and said, “We can do this right if we have a great experience,” and they've been continuously innovating ever since. Whether it's for payment or loyalty or customer feedback, they’re really the brand and experience to match. So I think they've got a great head start.
SC: Well I love QR codes, and I'm glad you mentioned them. I know a lot of people thought they were dead, and I was in the same boat! But I think we just started with QR codes and didn’t even understand how to use them. It was too much. Now I think what Starbucks has done, and what Snapchat has done with Snapcodes, and Spotify with their share codes…so many major brands are using them, and it's really changing how people activate mobile experiences.
DG: With iOS 11 the camera now has a QR reading built into your native camera, so that solves a huge problem that we had as marketers to get the adoption of QR codes to accelerate.
SC: So where do you think the future of mobile is headed?
DG: I'm really excited that RCS, which is Rich Communication Services, is really kind of taking SMS to the next level. What’s really interesting about RCS is that it's actually an experience that lives inside the native messaging app on your phone. So for example for Android, the default SMS application that you have on every Android device will actually support RCS. And so what we (at Mobivity) have built for Subway is that order ahead experience, and we used RCS to completely integrate it within the native messaging application. So that means I could have a transactional or market message come onto your phone as a text, and then convert that to a purchase from the messaging app. They can go ahead and customize their order, find a Subway, and have it ordered right from their phone without downloading anything.
SC: I love that you guys are all in on RCS. What do you think the biggest challenges are for a company when they think about RCS for the first time and how it can fit into their overall strategy?
DG: Well, I think it's just right now awareness. One of the things about being an innovator is you're talking about things that aren’t mainstream yet. You have to be patient, you have to explain that this is where the market is going, and find innovative companies to join you on that journey, like we did with Subway. They have large aspirations to grow in mobile, and they want to be in on that vision of making a futuristic mobile experience.
Mobile Conversations are excerpts from Lumavate’s Mobile Matters podcast. You can listen to this episode in full here, and find more episodes with other mobile experts here.