Creating a Mobile Curriculum
Written by Brian Tschoepe

Through my research into mobile marketing and my involvement with the student media, I was sponsored by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Distributive Networks to attend the MMA Forum on June 7th. From a student perspective, this experience was exceptionally interesting because it focused not on the standard marketing practices taught in most classrooms but contained the underlying theme of tying a business model to the marketing concept. From discussions between the major, wireless carriers to the mobile search advocates and mobile web initiatives, the theme of carefully crafting business models that do not disrupt, but rather enhance, the consumer experience was stressed as a focal point for the MMA. In my schooling, this point is rarely discussed.

The process of using the mobile medium as a tool to reach consumers is consistently focused on in the classroom, but rarely do academic discussions go beyond reach and frequency. Very few discussions venture into the realm of consumer permission, the mobile value chain and the creation of new digital behaviors within our culture. Unfortunately, the academic classrooms are primarily relying on the digital jungle of information on the web and sometimes lack the real-time examples that MMA articles provide. Only those who come across the MMA through multiple Google searches will find this information. I would like to see the MMA and the academic community more closely allied to facilitate a constant exchange of information.

In addition to the MMA offering a credible and distinct voice within the academic community, the mobile arena offers an opportunity for new types of creativity in university classrooms. Being such a new medium, creativity lies in not only the message sent to desired contacts but also in the inventiveness and strategic thinking needed in figuring out the best aperture moment and careful way to get the desired message across in a highly interactive and personal environment. In most universities, it is common that students in class that deal with creativity focus on the message, but mobile marketing as a medium offers the chance to teach creativity to students in a new way that focuses equally on the message, its delivery and its timing. Introducing this mobile marketing platform to students will be important in proliferating the best practices set forth by the MMA.

Another benefit to the close relationship between academia, primarily students, and the MMA is the strong use of mobile tools by students. While adults are also using mobile platforms, the standard college students will not remember flirting in person, but sending text messages to that potential love interest. As consumers create and mold behaviors that will become common place for the heart of Generation M, academic insights from primary users will help to create successful and personal uses of mobile messaging that will hopefully translate well to other mobile users in the future.

At the conference, the sessions were split up among different uses of the mobile platform which also opens the door to studies from academics that specialize in other digital markets. For example, the discussion of mobile search brought in not only mobile marketing experts but search industry experts as well. Mobile marketing as a medium in reaching people will have a unique place in the university setting because the discourse around mobile platforms will incorporate discussion and ideas from not only mobile marketing experts, but a wide variety of digital and potentially traditional marketing disciplines.

As stated at the conference, the mobile marketing industry is still in the infancy of pre-school, but as it grows up, it is important to leave the curriculum created by the pioneers behind for the academic world. With the first mobile marketing journal recently released, the engagement between academia and the MMA is just beginning to start, but must continue so that ideas from both ends are shared and work in the same direction. In the mobile marketing realm, even the teachers are students.


Brian is a student at The University of Texas at Austin in their advertising program, and more specifically, their TexasMedia sequence. The TexasMedia sequence is one of the few programs that offer a specific sequence and certification in media. While TexasMedia deals with all forms of media from print and broadcast to interactive, he has found his niche in the digital media arena.

Brian is also the Student Ad Director of Texas Student Media. Texas Student Media (TSM) is the over-arching company that manages all the student media properties at the University of Texas. His seminal experience in this role was bundling all of the media properties sold by TSM. Brian is also engaged in proposals which would add SMS coupons and mobile content delivery to the media property portfolio. Additionally, he is contributor of ideas to the creation of a mobile program at TSM.

This summer, Brian is interning at mediaedge:cia in New York in their search division and hopes to work in the digital media space when he graduates.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />