iMediaConnection
8 April 2005

Unwired for the Future (Part 2)
By Dawn Anfuso, Editor

Enpocket's president explains the popularity of ring tones, and tells us why mBlogging will gain significance.
Mike Baker is president and COO of Enpocket, a global mobile media company. Baker is responsible for executing Enpocket's day-to-day operations, as well as for creating the strategy that is enabling Enpocket to sustain its rapid growth across the globe. Baker also serves on the company's board of directors. We talked with Baker recently to learn more about where the mobile marketing industry is going this year. Read the first part of the interview here.

iMedia: Where does mobile fit in a brand’s overall marketing strategy?

Mike Baker: Mobile is the most personal and targeted means of reaching the consumer so it’s becoming a more commonly used supplement to traditional marketing campaigns. Forward-thinking marketers are using mobile as a key piece of their entire media mix, as it provides a means of interaction off outdoor, TV and print media, and can drive consumers to out-of-home locations such as stores at designated times of day. However, given the personal nature of the medium, we continue to emphasize in our campaigns consumer control and quality of consumer experience.

iMedia: Do campaigns have to be more sophisticated now that many brands and media companies are embracing the idea?

Baker: Many of today’s most successful mobile campaigns are still very straightforward. As richer multimedia applications come into play, the technology might be more sophisticated but participation should be just as easy. With that said, companies will start to use color and video as part of their messaging and WAP marketing and, if executed correctly, these will deliver richer, more responsive customer experiences. The message should always remain the same though -- sophistication should never impede user experience.

iMedia: How do you measure the effectiveness of a campaign?

Baker: The success of a campaign needs to be judged not only on the response metrics, i.e., how many affirmatively responded to a call to action, but also the impact of the marketing message on those who did not respond. For this reason, we advise advertising clients piloting programs in the medium to conduct research on what I call the qualitative metrics. What percentage of the audience views the brand more favorably? What percentage would be more likely to purchase the product advertised? After individual campaigns, we survey participants to find out what they thought of the campaign and how it has affected their perception of the client. We are an extremely research-oriented marketing company and this information has been invaluable with the growth of our organization and success of our clients’ mobile strategies.

iMedia: What role can mobile content and mobile community applications play in making this an even stronger marketing channel?

Baker: If a brand can really enrich and entertain its consumers, this can create a greater loyalty from the consumer. First-generation mobile marketing was more informative and offer-driven; the next generation will be more about offering branded content and applications that consumers really love to use.

iMedia: Why are ring tones and ring backs so popular?

Baker: Ring tones and ring backs are popular because they help us make our mobile devices more personal and add an element of individuality to our handsets. They draw attention to us on an individual level and let others learn more about us. They really are almost a means of expression. Industry insiders now watch the ring tone charts and not the singles charts to keep track of who the hot artists really are. With full track music downloads on the horizon, ring tones will start to sound even better.

iMedia: Why do you think mobile blogging will share success in the way blogging has on the internet?

Baker: Mobile blogging will add a greater element of immediacy to blogging and will undoubtedly help build user-generated content. MMS picture and video and text messages can be instanteously added to a blog within seconds no matter where a blogger might be. With a high number of camera phones on the market, people are now looking for new ways to share memories and ideas with friends, family and the world at large. The mBlog is opening new opportunities for this to become reality.

iMedia: How are mobile blogs most effectively utilized?

Baker: With the continuing growth of camera phones and the interest in picture mail, mBlogs will be a great place to document and store images. Our research has found that many people take photos with their mobile handsets, but don’t really have a place to put the photos they have taken. Mobile blogs are a great solution to this challenge.

In the months to come, mBlogs will also be built into other applications. So football fans might use an application that sits on their mobile for scores and stats on their favorite team. With an mblogging option they will be able to post images and their opinions on the game, and even subscribe to the mBlog of their favorite player.

iMedia: Is the mobile phone eventually going to replace the PC?

Baker: Whoever predicts exactly how this pans out will be a very rich person. For the foreseeable future, text-heavy tasks will be done on the PC but an increasing number of services will go mobile. With the forthcoming releases of Walkman and iPod mobile phones as a proof point, I feel that a lot more digital entertainment will be consumed over mobile.

Data from the most recent Mobile Media Monitor (one of our research products) shows the three current demand areas in mobile to be picture mail, the ability to send and receive video, and applications that favor listening and downloading music. I’m sure services that fulfill these criteria will gain mass adoption; however, I also think we’ll also see services emerge that consumers didn’t even think they wanted until they actually saw them.

iMedia: What can we expect from Enpocket in 2005?

Baker: Enpocket is investing heavily in the continued development of technology infrastructure for mobile marketing. Shortly, we will be introducing a significantly enhanced version of our core mobile marketing product -- the Enpocket Marketing Engine -- that will allow marketers to execute text-based and mobile internet-based campaigns on a common platform with unified reporting and analytics.

On the content side of our business, we will be introducing new ways for mobile consumers to find people with similar interests (be it for dating or other interests) and to communicate with people not just through texting, but also instant messaging, pictures, voice and video.

We also will be rolling out advertising programs featuring highly targeted mobile internet inventory that essentially is delivered to a consumer in a “push” from within a contextually relevant content activity. Lastly, we will be continuing our pioneering work in connecting communities of consumers across operators, branded services and even countries. We believe that our P2P Mobile Platform will encourage more consumer interaction and drive revenues for our clients.

One overriding theme that you’ll see from our work is that marketing and content needs to go hand-in-hand. If you’ve built an exciting application, mobile marketing is the most logical way to let your audience know about it as a WAP link can drive recipients straight through to the service. Sprint has already shown earlier this year how this can work in action with its successful Valentine’s Day launch of Match.com Mobile, which used our text messaging services to drive consumer registrations for the service.