Back in 2010, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt forewarned of an impending data explosion. “Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were five exabytes of information created. We [now] create five exabytes every two days,” he said.

Last year, about 2.5 exabytes of data were being created daily, an amount that is expected to double roughly every three years. If you are unclear as to how large an exabtye is, it looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. According to the Harvard Business Review, that is the equivalent of about 20 million filing cabinets’ worth of text.

Humans have always been hardwired for the rush of a challenge and pride in beating opponents.  Now marketers are discovering the "power of play" to boost customer interaction.

Why does engagement matter? Because it drives customer satisfaction, utility and value.

And, according to Walgreens senior director of mobile commerce Tim McCauley, the best way to foster engagement with customers is through a multichannel marketing approach with mobile at its core.

This was a sentiment echoed by, well, nearly everyone who spoke last week at the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2013, organized by Mobile Commerce Daily.

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Gold Mobile: Strategies for Driving App ROI

April 1st, 2013

Introduction

As the number of Americans with smartphones passes the halfway mark this year, retailers have an opportunity to directly engage with their customers and go on the offensive against “Showrooming,” a trend in which consumers use their smartphones in a store to scan the barcodes of products to find better deals on Amazon or at a nearby competitor’s location. It is clear that retailers must go on the offensive against showrooming and find new ways to market to consumers and harness the power of mobile phones.