http://www.maniacsolutions.com/mobile-marketing-mma/
Mobile Marketing Fantasy Vs. Reality
Those who doubt that mobile marketing has failed to move want to go amp themselves.
Brands who ponied millions for a piece of the Super Bowl this year was PepsiCo beverage Amp Energy. While his television commercials 15 seconds did not venture far from the Big Game kingdoms costumes proven mood-one appears an overweight truck driver starting a stalled car-through jumper cables connected to her nipples, quieter the related effort came much farther. How far? Well, for people who could not even having the game at all. As part of its agreement with the NFL, Amp Energy sponsored Sprint's exclusive Super Bowl mobile channel, which allowed him to run ads via cell phone. A photo of the amplifier can be realized on mobile phone screens along with the music, waving the green flames and the slogan "Go Amp yourself." (Hopefully, none of the phone users cell chosen to do with the jumper cables.)
When an effort Super Bowl ads lying cellular level, is surely a sign that the marketing Mobile has arrived, right? After all, although the third place was a timid display boiled down version of TV in your face ", the very idea of adaptation of a commercial for mobile distribution would have been like a foreign concept a few years ago.
Today is a reality, sort of. Around this time 12 months ago, experts were busy promoting mobile marketing as the next big thing. Not so. And not a whole lot different. Mega brands like Pepsi and Burger King still toe-dip in the pool mobile, tests of various forms of advertising and promotions Although most of the dollars of their costs elsewhere.
As mobile expert John Hadl said: "It is difficult to obtain an actual reading in the value of mobile when you're alone spending $ 25,000 to $ 50,000 in it. "
But things are starting to change. Mobile marketing is "going in the right direction," said John Vail, director of interactive marketing for Pepsi-Cola North America, Purchase, New York "It's just taking longer than people thought." analysis Mobile companies like UK-based Bango are helping companies measure mobile Web site traffic, what devices recipients used and the countries they are in. In February, 58 million mobile subscribers reported that they had been exposed to mobile advertising, for San Francisco, Nielsen Mobile (a unit of Nielsen Co., which also owns Brandweek). While that is only 23% of total mobile subscribers today, the figure stands as marketing experiments' will continue moving growing. And Hadl, who serves as managing partner of Beverly Hills-based BrandInHand, supervisor of Procter & Gamble mobile efforts, added that the threshold about: "Once there is no direct evidence of ROI," he said, "spending will move faster than the industry can handle."
That could occur as early as two years from now. Forrester Research predicts that mobile marketing spending in the U.S. Surge from $ 270 million now stands at $ 405 million in 2009. Then it all goes exponential, doubling every year until 2012, when the Cambridge, Mass. research firm predicted based on mobile marketing will be worth $ 2,800,000,000.
Marketers view the mobile marketing explosion as "inevitable" said Bill Jones, president of the Atlanta-based platform provider Air2Web Mobile Internet, with Starbucks and UPS as clients. Some are "really trying accelerate "the channel because" properly used, is the most effective mechanism to interact with customers and prospects. "
All of which raises the question: How can marketers use mobile devices cost to deliver their brand messages at this time?
What follows are some responses. Like many emerging ideas in technology, the emergence of mobile marketing has been the participation of merchants as fantasy more than reality, and are learning the painstaking (and sometimes just painful) differences between the two. For example, studies have repeatedly shown that many consumers do not like to have ads on their phones. (Only 10% of mobile data users through advertisements received consider PDAs to be acceptable, According to Nielsen Mobile.) At the same time, one third of those surveyed said they would be well to see the ads as long as the points to offset their bills for a mobile example, through free minutes. "That," said Nielsen Mobile Marketing Corporate vp Paul Okimoto, "is where we're starting to see a rebound."
Without doubt, we will start seeing many more of those. For now, here's the story on the phenomenon of today's mobile marketing, both fantasy and reality.
REALITY
Customers dig mobile games.
Videogames were once synonymous with geeks, but a look at who is using a Wii these days (including members of AARP and the physically disabled, at last check) shows how dated that stereotype. This love story has led to more to mobile devices. In fact, some observers now predict that global revenues from mobile games eventually exceed that of the console and traditional versions hand. According to UK-based consultancy Understanding & Solutions, mobile gaming is expected to reach $ 6,000,000,000 in 2011.
Some brands are already prepared to embrace this passion by offering free downloadable games for mobile devices that keep your brand front and center. The latter is the BK City, debuting April 21, a complicated game with three worlds (five games in each van) from a castle to a BK drive-thru. It will be available through all carriers except Verizon. POP, online ads and mobile ads, of course, support the effort. BK City is the latest development of Mobliss, Seattle, whose prior efforts include Nickelodeon's Rugrats Food Fight and Brady Bunch Kung Fu.
"Much of what mobile content advertisers cheesy throw away, "said Tia Lang, director of media and interactive for the Miami-based chain. But," as the progress of the players, our game becomes more difficult. It's fun, funny and relevant to our goal. "
FANTASY
People will never use their phones to buy things.
Think again. Remember that everyone was worried about using online credit cards? Even some tech-savvy shoppers wrung their hands on cyber thieves steal your identity and drain their savings accounts. (Psst-it rarely happens.) Although these concerns have swirled around mobile banking and on the go-transactions, the truth is that a quarter of mobile phone users with Web access have already trusted their handheld devices to do their shopping, according to Harris Interactive, Rochester, NY Sixteen percent already use mobile banking services and one in five respondents hope their phone becomes a mobile wallet.
smart brands are starting to respond. In January, Pizza Hut began allowing U.S. consumers the request of any of its 6,200 stores using the mobile Web or text messaging. The chain said it expects half of its sales come online or through mobile devices over the next five years. Papa John's began offering the chance to text in orders last November.
"If the privacy issues and security can be caged, mobile banking and mobile wallet services could start the next step for mobile operators, "predicted Jose Porus, vice president of the technology practice of Harris Interactive. Rajeev Raman, CEO of mywaves, a mobile video destination whose clients include MBW, agrees. In the near future, he said, "purchasing movie tickets, fast food and music through mobile phones is considered normal, everyday behavior. "
REALITY
Convenience works.
Skip the cleverisms; brands that offer consumers information that makes life easier are the ones who will benefit. "That's why we bought the phone in the first place," Hadl said.
Starbucks, for example, makes it easy to find the nearest latte with a mobile store locator based. Where is that blue collar you ask is going to appear? UPS allows you to track the whereabouts of your package on your mobile device.
"Too many people pigeonhole mobile marketing as only ringtones or wallpapers," Air2Web said Jones, whose company created both applications. Brands that sponsor services that tell users things like that is nearest baby-changing, or where is the shop where you can buy what I need, will thrive, added Hadl of BrandinHand. "Soon," he said, mobile devices will not only be a push medium. "
FANTASY
Text messaging (also known as SMS) is not effective.
Like hell it is not. While many are looking mobile TV, mobile Web and other features, the campaign simple, text-only brand is still often what works best. Why? Because even the oldest, most primitive cell phones out there with the technology that allows people to receive promotional text and respond to one. Moreover, the practice of text messaging has been widely adopted.
In December, the ads attached 1-800-Free411 sent to users who opted receive text horoscopes, diet tips and other information from a company called Limbo. While the general free information service, has about 40,000 50,000 new callers daily, the volume jumped to nearly 80,000 a day after the mobile ads to run. In general, received a fee Limbo response of 7.1% for text ads that ran for their customers in the fourth quarter.
"The forgotten technology of SMS will be a factor much more important in digital spends than anyone is predicting, "said Jonathan Linner, CEO of Limbo, Burlingame, California, it's funny that so many vendors are buzzing about putting a movie or banner ad on a cell phone. The people said "No" received yet. You get 10 times better performance SMS ".
REALITY
The iPhone changed everything.
One of the biggest obsessions (pun intended) for mobile vendors is the lack of "high" in technology. We are talking about cell phones antideluvian everyone was about before last summer, when Apple's iPhone will reach stores. In January, CEO Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone will "reinvent" telecommunications. Some disagreed. Some still do. But mobile marketing advocates generally are not among them. The user of the iPhone mean age of 18 is five times more likely to explore the mobile web and 11 times likely to use mobile video or TV, according to Nielsen Mobile. An American iPhone is also carrying 70% more likely to use SMS.
"Look no further than the iPhone for proof that improving the user interface of the device and can radically increase media consumption," said John Najarian, svp media and business development at Comcast Entertainment Group, which oversees E! 'S mobile page.
Better yet, the popularity iPhone imitators has meant lower prices, leading to a new generation of "smart phones" that experts like Chetan Sharma, co-author of the recently mobile advertising published book, believe that comprise the largest number 20% of the domestic market in two years. (More powerful data pipelines, and everything can-eat data plans will help, too.) Thanks to the iPhone, Sharma said, Americans finally think the cell phone is more than something speak. "
FANTASY
It's getting easier to run mobile marketing programs.
Keep dreaming. Still takes about two months to get a large company like AT & T or Verizon to approve a text program. And that, according to Gene Keenan, vice president of telephony services phone-in Isobar, San Francisco, and deputy chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association., Denver, is "ridiculous."
"You can for a URL and has a web site in two hours, "said Keenan." It is too hard for brands and agencies to make mobiles. "Worse," Until it is easier for big brands to participate, you will not see the big money. "
Keenan and experts like him have compared the companies space protected: nice to be part of, but good luck getting in and exert authoritarian control over the content on the cover (which is the property available only to users subscribers) and move a Soviet-style bureaucratic slowness in approving marketing programs.
For example, WAP sites and banner ads has to be customized by telephone and the carrier. "Introduce a lot of complexity," Sharma said. "You can press a button and have launch a program across the country. You have to negotiate everything and get their content. "
But stay tuned, fantasy can turn into reality by this time next year. "You can get over the wall," Hadl said. "It will have hot and sweaty doing, but you can get more. AOL has already shown that here] [walled approach is a model for failure. "
REALITY
The mobile ecosystem is changing rapidly.
Quick as the pace of technology is, at times seem never fast enough. But advocates of limited mobile tools that have not kept pace of your marketing dreams may soon be doing a high-tech workforce. In November, Google announced Android, a new Linux-based operating mobile. Microsoft has just signed an agreement with Nokia to bring its Silverlight platform for mobile. And this quarter, Yahoo! It will launch what it calls onePlace, a mobile bookmarking tool that will allow better control of information. These events take place on the heels of AOL's '07 purchase of Third Screen Media, a company that serves banner ads for mobile Web sites. Nokia bought mobile agency Enpocket last year, too.
All of this Sharma said, means that "there is cautious optimism" over there. "Optimism, because of the uniqueness and reach mobile presents. Please note due to the enormous fragmentation of the industry. "
FANTASY
There is a killer app.
Just as Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd debated whether New Shimmer was a wax floor or a dessert topping (it's both!) on Saturday Night Live, appears every trader who has own miracle for mobile marketing. And so far, no one is quite nailing.
GPS take initiatives, which some see as the holy grail of mobile marketing potential. CBS Mobile announced a test earlier this year that will determine which ads to customers in the place where, by chance, standing, and Lang Burger King has been carefully nurture the idea of "serving customers an ad lunch, asking if they are hungry. "The problem?" That kind of thing is a fantasy. "
Almost alone. "My fantasy is to provide Pepsi Smash [music] video programming on demand optimized for the third screen for millions of view, "said Vail. P & G, General Mills and others are currently on trial with Cellfire, a company whose technology allows customers to store electronic coupons on their cell phones.
That's the dream of direct-to-consumer mobile video, alive in the mind of BMW Mini as a program started in January mywaves. And others are excited Mobile search with more than 46 million used their phones to search for information in the third quarter of last year, according to Nielsen Mobile.
Alex Muller will tell you that GPS-based mobile marketing will not be a fantasy for much longer (again, he is CEO of GPShopper, which allows to mobile customers use to locate the best deals on equipment they want to buy.) "There will be a while," he said, "when browsing a circular paper will not make sense. "
REALITY
There must be rules.
Mobile marketing is still very similar to the wild west: a landscape many players said to be different, each competitor traffic of goods and promises. "We need to further develop rules to reduce the friction there, "said Jordan Berman, executive director of media innovation at AT & T Mobility, New York." There needs to be more consistent about how to get off the ground programs. I'm on the MMA board of directors and we all agree that it is a confusing market out there. "
Then again, people said the same thing about the Web itself when it was new. Growing pains, Berman said, are natural: "Internet is like a young child is mobile marketing still in the womb. "
Brand Courtesy of the week
By: Kenneth Hein
About the Author
http://www.israelidiamond.co.il/English/index.aspx
Text messages saves school.