Marketing Moonshot

Launching and Leading the Mobile Frontier

Just a couple days ago, Tony Rizzo, Editor in Chief of Mobile Enterprise Magazine, wrote a nice piece on AMPchroma^TM our new cloud-based, mobile business suite that we announced on Tuesday.  The first thing that Tony wrote, which put a smile on my face, is “never let it be said that Antenna doesn’t enjoy its bit of marketing whimsy – well placed as it tends to be.”

Well, he is right.  As a marketeer – I love whimsy!  It’s why I got into the field in the first place.  Whimsy, by definition, is something that is both fanciful and odd.  It can be fun, strange, unexpected, and self-effacing all at the same time.  And when you work in technology, as I do, you need whimsy.  It breaks preoccupation and makes one stop and ponder things for a moment.  In today’s modern world where there is so much clutter, noise and companies fighting for share-of-mind, businesses need to speak in a different voice… they sometimes have to wear different hats and shake things up a bit.

Call it whimsy if you like.  I call it color.

Which brings me back to AMPchroma.  Why did we name our new product “chroma”?  Well, for you linguists out there:  chroma = color.  More specifically, it means purity or intensity of color.

Remember the first time you saw the Wizard of Oz and how jarring it was when Dorothy left the gritty, black and white world of Kansas and stepped through the door into the techni-color world of Oz?  Well, that kind of feels like where we are today.  Especially when it comes to mobile.

Mobile has been gray and gritty for years and years.  Dare I say going back to 1983 when the first wireless phone came on the scene? But in 2007, when Apple introduced the iPhone to the free world, things changed forever.  We entered Oz …

The iPhone’s first act was on a consumer stage with a tsunami of apps geared for both gamers and goofballs.  (Remember iFart?).  But then people started walking their iPhones through the front door, right past security, up the elevator, and into the boardroom.

[A visible 'temple rub' was seen in IT offices around the business world.]

Let’s face it; apps have captured the imaginations of virtually every marketing group the world over.  If you don’t have an app you are a laggard of sorts… stuck in a business backwater… and perhaps at a serious competitive disadvantage.  But the mad dash to get an app built and launched into the app store has now settled into a realization that this stuff is hard work!

The new reality is that mobile isn’t just a project or a campaign.  It is the new normal.  It is essentially becoming the new computing platform and fabric that ties together all the systems, users, applications, content and more into a well choreographed business waltz.  Increasingly, people are tossing their laptops to the side and opting for smartphones and tablets, as proven out in sluggish PC sales at both HP and Dell, reported earlier this week.

AMPchroma strikes at the heart of this very issue.  It says: mobile doesn’t have to be complicated, scary and complex.  It doesn’t have to be a series of either/or choices?  Mobile doesn’t have to be black or white!  It is a colorful world of possibility and potential that needs to looked at holistically and well-managed.  It’s about capturing lightning in a bottle.

Covering the Full Spectrum

Just like there are seven shades of color in the visible spectrum, there are seven essential steps to mobilizing your business.  And each stage has its own cast of characters that have a stake in the game and a role to play.

At a high level, AMPchroma means different things whether you come from the technology side of the house vs. the business side:

• For CIOs: AMPchroma allows Global 1000 CIOs to build, manage and measure a unified mobile strategy across the enterprise.
• For Marketers and Business Managers: AMPchroma guarantees an easier, faster time to market for creating and publishing engaging content-rich mobile apps and websites.

BUT – both have a common goal in mind.  How can I accelerate my business with mobile?

What is AMPchroma?

Introducing AMPchroma

• • • • • • • • • It is the mobile cloud that helps you manage your ‘always on’ business.
                • It is the SaaS layer that allows businesses to manage the entire mobile lifecycle from a single web-based console.
                • It simplifies how you engage users with apps and content on any connected device — from phones to tablets to TVs — to drive greater profits through the mobile channel.
                • It lets you easily create, publish and manage apps and websites and connect them to a suite of powerful cloud-based services. These services include content management, integration with web feeds and enterprise systems, distribution through branded storefronts, management and control of devices, apps and content, and sophisticated real-time analytics.
                • It gives you the flexibility you need because your business requires you to be agile.  Let’s face it – things change on a dime these days and you can’t be tied down to expensive long term contracts.
                • It gives companies the ability to control, measure, adapt and future-proof all of their mobile strategies for employees, partners, and customers in one place. Whether for one or one hundred apps; whether for 100 users or millions.
                • It delivers greater productivity, connectivity and engagement for happier customers, partners and employees.
                • Unlike previous AMP platforms that were organized around the technology stack, AMPchroma approaches mobility from the point of view of the myriad actors involved in the seven-act play. All design, development, management, and analytics. functionality are presented as a suite of software modules accessible from a friendly Web interface. Yes, Antenna has always been about cloud, but AMPchroma is the true culmination of an integrated, cloud-based platform for the 7 phases of the app lifecycle – Design, Build, Integrate, Publish, Run, Manage and Analyze.

Yes, the iPhone and iPad changed business in ways we never thought possible.  It showed us Oz.  It opened our eyes to a new way of conducting business and created new channels of growth.  But it is not just about Apple.  It’s also Android, Microsoft, etc. It’s not just mobile devices.  It’s multi-channel – laptops, handhelds, IPTV, M2M, It’s not just apps!  It’s videos, images, and other digital content.  It’s not just native, its web, hybrid, etc.  Mobile is a colorful place, and smart businesses need an integrated suite of software that recognizes how they operate.

It says:  You don’t have to manage mobile in silos anymore.  You can pay for what you use.  You can take as much or as little as you need.  It can grow with you.  It can be collaborative.  It can be secure.

In short, mobile can be a whole lot simpler.