Mobile Marketing…is it here yet?
Mobile marketing must take the cake for the most hotly anticipated ‘next big thing’. 2003, back in the day, was going to ‘THE YEAR’, then 2004, and so on through to 2009 (which we’re more than half way through). So has it arrived??
It’s getting there, and the momentum is picking up. So rather than adding to the speculation and the predictions I thought a brief chat on some of what is currently happening would be a useful place to start. I’ve broken ‘Mobile Marketing’ into its key areas:
Mobile Web Advertising
The web is becoming easier and cheaper to access via mobile devices. In Australia there was a 60% increase in internet enabled mobile phones in the last 4 months of 2008. Adverts in the mobile world are the same as those in the online space. Brands buy space / have space bought for them on high traffic, relevant mobile properties.
With the advent of GPS enabled phones, mobile ads can be served based on a person’s location providing a higher degree of relevance than online equivalents.
Research shows that users don’t mind mobile ads – they actually like them. This is thanks to the discipline employed by the industry, based on lessons learned on the Internet.
Some brands are leading the way with mobile advertising, you can check out some examples here.
SMS Marketing
Love it, or hate it, SMS marketing is an effective, enticing and economical way for brands to market themselves to a broad audience base. There is good SMS marketing and bad SMS marketing. The ‘good’ is always permissions based and provides an offer / message which is relevant. The ‘bad’ lacks one, or both of the above.
SMS is incredibly valuable for timely location-relevant proactive messaging when information is time sensitive. SMS is also a back-end capability. It can be used to wake up applications on devices and it can be used to interact with other types of services.
Here’s an example of how casinos are tapping into the power of SMS marketing, and how Pizza Hut achieved 2,000 ‘opt-ins’ in the first 2 weeks of a campaign.
Mobile Vouchers
Mobile vouchers add a level of interaction, branding and tracking to standard SMS marketing. Most mobile vouchers are WAP based, and more often than not delivered as a clickable link within an SMS.
Such mobile vouchers have proven to be an effective and very tangible way of getting consumers to respond, and brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are already using them as part of their international campaigns. They are very flexible and scalable and when done well, the results are very impressive.
With the increase in Internet enabled phones (see above), the use of mobile vouchering is set to increase dramatically. Applications for Smartphones are enabling consumers to search for offers around them and select those they are interested in whilst in the area…adding ‘right location’ to ‘right message and ‘right time’. Here’s a great example.
Gaming
Mobile gaming has come on in leaps and bounds. Whilst there has been a trend towards more complex and more sophisticated, richer game play, most mobile games today are so-called casual games, which are simple and easy to play. Brands are now delivering promotional messages into mobile games, or sponsoring entire games to drive consumer engagement. Nickelodeon recently extended their AddictingGames brand into the mobile arena, providing opportunities for organisations to move into branded mobile gaming.
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