Key Industry Challenges addressed by Superior Customer Offerings

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1 Customer Value Enhancement Award Mobile Marketing North America, 2011 Frost & Sullivan s Global Research Platform Frost & Sullivan is in its 50th year in business with a global research organization of 1,800 analysts and consultants who monitor more than 300 industries and 250,000 companies. The company s research philosophy originates with the CEO s 360 Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables us to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership. Based on the findings of this Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2011 Customer Value Enhancement Award for North American Mobile Marketing to Hipcricket Inc. (Hipcricket). Significance of the Customer Value Enhancement Award Key Industry Challenges addressed by Superior Customer Offerings The most significant challenge in the U.S. mobile marketing industry today is convincing leading brands and agencies to increase the use of the mobile channel for their digital marketing needs. Frost & Sullivan notes that this can be solved by making it as simple as possible for these entities to incorporate mobile marketing into their digital marketing and advertising programs. Specialized industry participants have emerged as early innovators in this space; however, this has also resulted in disparate processes and approaches towards mobile marketing. Mobile marketers and advertisers are best served by providing easy-to-use, unified and seamless solutions that allow brands and agencies to manage comprehensive mobile marketing and advertising campaigns through a single platform. The buy-side (advertisers and agencies) expect maximum coverage for their campaigns, yet they prefer to avoid working with multiple mobile marketing solution providers for different types of mobile marketing campaigns). Frost & Sullivan firmly believes that the solution provider that can offer holistic campaign planning, execution and measurement tools (along with comprehensive support services) will emerge as the preferred provider of mobile marketing and advertising solutions. Thus, it will be increasingly important for specialized (or niche) mobile marketing solution providers to expand their portfolio of mobile marketing solutions either organically or through strategic partnerships to deliver greater value to their customers and effectively compete. Advertisers and agencies want to execute integrated, multi-channel mobile marketing 2011 Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

2 campaigns across different mobile data environments including messaging, mobile applications, mobile web, and other channels. The challenge is to be able to measure the performance, effectiveness and overall spend for each of the individual device types and mobile environments. This is certainly not an easy task. Industry participants that have a long, proven record of successful campaign planning and execution are best positioned to achieve these objectives and can help develop the appropriate tools to help their customers gain cross-channel visibility into their marketing campaigns. Other important industry challenges include enhancing automation in targeted campaign creation, execution and management; providing greater integration of mobile messaging with other channels; improving integration of mobile commerce into the mobile marketing and advertising mix; and providing reliable and efficient service and support to customers. Impact of Customer Value Enhancement Award on Key Stakeholders The Customer Value Enhancement Award is a prestigious recognition of Hipcricket s accomplishments in the mobile marketing space. An unbiased, third-party recognition can provide a profound impact in enhancing the brand value and accelerating Hipcricket s growth. As captured in Chart 1 below, by researching, ranking, and recognizing those who deliver excellence and best practices in their respective endeavors, Frost & Sullivan hopes to inspire, influence, and impact three specific constituencies: Investors Investors and shareholders always welcome unbiased and impartial third-party recognition. Similarly, prospective investors and shareholders are drawn to companies with a well-established reputation for excellence. Unbiased validation is the best and most credible way to showcase an organization worthy of investment. Customers Third-party industry recognition has been proven to be the most effective way to assure customers that they are partnering with an organization that is leading in its field. Employees This Award represents the creativity and dedication of Hipcricket s executive team and employees. Such public recognition can boost morale and inspire these stakeholders to continue the best-in-class performance for superior innovation for Hipcricket Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

3 Chart 1: Best Practices Leverage for Growth Acceleration Best Practice Award Analysis for Hipcricket The Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. This Award recognizes the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and ultimately customer base expansion. Hipcricket s Performance in Mobile Marketing Hipcricket is a one-stop mobile marketing and advertising company that empowers brands, agencies and media properties to engage customers, drive loyalty and increase sales. Hipcricket s customers connect with consumers across every mobile channel, including SMS, 2D/QR codes, mobile Web sites, advertising networks, social media and branded apps. The company s proven technology, strategic marketing services and experienced account management teams have provided measurable successes through an industry-leading 130,000 campaigns for clients such as Macy s, MillerCoors, Nestle, KFC, and Clear Channel. Hipcricket was acquired by Augme Technologies in the summer of Key Performance Drivers for Hipcricket Among the competitive landscape, Frost & Sullivan independent benchmarking has consistently tracked Hipcricket s proven record of executing integrated mobile marketing 2011 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

4 (and advertising) campaigns for leading brands and agencies in the United States. Frost & Sullivan has identified the following critical factors for Hipcricket s success: Comprehensive Product Portfolio Hipcricket offers a full range of mobile marketing and advertising solutions including mobile messaging, IVR, WAP and mobile web, mobile applications, mobile coupons and others (including Hipcricket s SocialConnect social media marketing tool). The Hipcricket mobile marketing platform offers comprehensive reporting and segmentation capabilities and can be integrated easily with other and web platforms to deliver integrated digital marketing campaigns. The ability to provide a broader, richer solutions for mobile marketing ranging from geo-fencing to mobile messaging and websites and apps has been key to the continued success of Hipcricket. Hipcricket s offerings are particularly appealing for larger brands and agencies that want to use the risk-free services of a trusted solution provider for all mobile marketing, mobile advertising and m-commerce initiatives. Hipcricket Mobile Advertising Solutions Group The Hipcricket Mobile Advertising Solutions Group provides mobile media strategy and tactics, media planning, campaign execution, reporting, and optimization that effectively drives results for both agencies and brands. Offering a rich toolset of technology and professional services, this group of mobile advertising experts delivers laser-targeting and optimization tactics that reach distinct audience segments at various points along the decision path. From standard mobile display to rich media, interstitial and video units, the core offering also extends to unique sponsorship opportunities across handsets and tablets and transcends to other media through transmedia tactics and interactivity enabled through wireless solutions. Hipcricket s Mobile Advertising business has grown tenfold in just 24 months and has been adopted by Fortune 1000 companies in more than 15 industries including quick service restaurants (QSR), retail, travel, technology, and consumer packaged goods (CPG). More than half of the ad campaigns so far have been implemented by existing customers who have experienced proven results and measurable ROI from their initial mobile advertising campaigns. With a single buy, agencies and brands have access to over 120 million consumers on the go and across any wireless device. Hipcricket s focus on delivering the right audience at the right time allows advertisers to target by geography, device, operating system, carrier, demographically-salient content verticals and day part mix. As the mobile advertising space continues to ramp, more brands and agencies turn to the expertise and guidance of the Hipcricket Mobile Advertising Solutions group to leverage the mobile advertising channel as a critical component of their of their overall marketing mix Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

5 Hipcricket Services - Strategic Services, Account Management, Integration Services, Reporting and Feedback Hipcricket offers a wide range of services to help customers develop, design and manage effective mobile marketing and advertising campaigns including strategy formulation, creative campaign design/execution, measurement, analytics, and reporting. For example, Hipcricket s dedicated account managers help guide the process from start to finish and address any questions or concerns at any point during the campaign. Hipcricket s Integration Services include SMS, , mobile web/wap, IVR and website integration services that allows organizations to leverage existing digital assets to offer unique personalized experience to existing and potential customers. Finally, Hipcricket offers a dedicated customer web reporting tool called Hipcricket Interaction Planner (HIP) that allows brands and advertisers to measure the true effectiveness of their mobile marketing campaigns. Speed of Execution Hipcricket has admirably developed over industry-leading 130,000 campaigns, using elements ranging from SMS to MMS to CRM to mobile-social programs, mobile coupons, QR codes, branded applications, mobile web, and more. Hipcricket s team can turn creative briefs into executable programs in 48 hours or less by leveraging the extensive in-house database of information about thousands of mobile marketing campaigns managed previously. Frost & Sullivan believes this is one of the fastest turnarounds in the U.S. mobile marketing and advertising industry and is a key differentiator for the company s offerings. With thousands of campaigns under its belt, Hipcricket has acquired an unmatched understanding of the best practices in mobile marketing which helps the company improve its services to both existing and new customers. Roadmap Product Enhancements, Augme Technologies Acquisition Hipcricket continues to invest in appropriate technologies and systems to offer innovative, next-generation and integrated mobile marketing and advertising solutions. Its recent acquisition by Augme Technologies (Augme) is expected to further consolidate the company s position as an industry powerhouse in mobile marketing. Frost & Sullivan opines that the combined Hipcricket-Augme entity will have one of the most capable, innovative and complete sets of mobile marketing and advertising solutions in the industry and will enable the company to realize its vision of providing end-to-end service and support to mobile marketers. The combined client roster is expected to include over 300 customers including ten of the world s top twenty pharmaceutical companies, six of the largest media companies in the world, four of the largest advertising agencies in the world, three of the leading fast service restaurant groups in the world; and, one of the largest food companies in the world. This acquisition also strengthens Hipcricket s position in mobile web based marketing and advertising. With Hipcricket s management retaining the key positions at the new entity, Frost & Sullivan expects that Hipcricket will continue to exceed performance 2011 Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

6 expectations in the coming months and years. Conclusion Hipcricket has emerged as the preferred provider of high-impact mobile marketing solutions in the United States. Key reasons for its strong performance include strength of its product portfolio, strong service and support capabilities, exceptional speed of execution, and overall strategic acumen of its leadership team. Hipcricket is a unique company that has successfully adopted a full-service approach to help marketers understand and leverage the potential of mobile marketing. Frost & Sullivan believes that Hipcricket is poised for continued success in the U.S. mobile marketing and advertising markets, and presents the company with the 2011 Customer Value Enhancement Award in recognition of its ability to deliver the best results to its customers and partners. The CEO 360 Degree Perspective TM - Visionary Platform for Growth Strategies The CEO 360 Degree Perspective model provides a clear illustration of the complex business universe in which CEOs and their management teams live today. It represents the foundation of Frost & Sullivan's global research organization and provides the basis on which companies can gain a visionary and strategic understanding of the market. The CEO 360 Degree Perspective is also a must-have requirement for the identification and analysis of best-practice performance by industry leaders. The CEO 360 Degree Perspective model enables our clients to gain a comprehensive, action-oriented understanding of market evolution and its implications for their companies growth strategies. As illustrated in Chart 5 below, the following six-step process outlines how our researchers and consultants embed the CEO 360 Degree Perspective into their analyses and recommendations Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth

7 360 Degree Perspective Model 2011 Frost & Sullivan 7 We Accelerate Growth

8 Critical Importance of TEAM Research Frost & Sullivan s TEAM Research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360 degree view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all seven of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Our experience has shown over the years that companies too often make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Frost & Sullivan contends that successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. In that vein, the letters T, E, A and M reflect our core technical, economic, applied (financial and best practices) and market analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the TEAM Research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for creating high-potential growth strategies for our clients. Chart 3: Benchmarking Performance with TEAM Research About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan 8 We Accelerate Growth