Show me the money – why the download experience is critical in building mobile brands
Submitted to the MMA by Ericsson IPX

Modern brands aren’t just about a logo or a catchy name – these days they’re all about experience. The nature of many products and services has changed in recent years, so that brands are moving away from the traditional vendor/seller relationship. Instead, they’re creating an ongoing global dialogue with their consumers through a combination of advertising, interactivity and branded channels. This means that successful brands create deeper customer loyalty for a longer period (ideally for life), and they get the benefit of consumers giving active feedback on how to make their products and services even better and even more targeted.

To companies looking at mobile as an opportunity, it seems a tantalizing world of hundreds of millions of subscribers and billion dollar revenues.  But the reality of launching mobile channels can be fraught with complexities that differ from country to country. To counter this, a growing number of companies are providing readymade services that can be branded and customized to suit any need.

Slowly but surely, more and more traditional media companies are extending their marketing campaigns to mobile. Even something as simple as an SMS short code can be extremely effective in generating responses and awareness, but the mobile experience is still very poor compared to web. If mobile is to generate significant revenues, this experience needs to match the ease and simplicity that consumers have become used to online.

Ericsson has created just this kind of service, called Internet Payment eXchange, or IPX. The IPX platform has been designed to be a virtual ‘broker’ between content and the consumer. IPX acts as a delivery and payment system for all forms of mobile content, meaning that companies and brands that use IPX receive monthly revenue share payments directly from IPX, without the need to deal directly with individual operators. Crucially, IPX also handles the operational, financial and legal relationships with operators globally, as well as enabling the delivery and billing.

IPX aims to provide companies with a robust pipe into as many operators as possible, so that brands can maximise their reach through a single connection. Customers benefit both from the quick and reliable collection of revenues from mobile operators as well as dependable access to millions mobile phone users the world over. Ericsson has seen completed purchases increase by up to 50% when customers who have moved to IPX from a proprietary platform, just through delivering a more intuitive purchase process.

This kind of increase is possible when you understand where the mobile content industry is today; few companies have successfully grasped the complexities of getting real value out of mobile. Often, mobile is treated as an afterthought or a quick extension to an existing promotion or campaign. But by treating mobile as a long-term commitment, it can be easier where mobile revenues fit into an overall strategy.    

And in order to generate real revenues, it’s essential that mobile starts to deliver on this promise of a seamless experience. This doesn’t mean it has to be graphically rich, with all the bells and whistles of the latest websites. Instead, standardization and familiarity is key. It’s no accident that the growth of web commerce over recent years has been driven by the evolution of ‘best practice’ design standards, and it’s clear that consumers will spend money if they are comfortable with the purchase process. That means that a similar level of simplicity and clarity needs to be at the heart of a successful mobile channel.

Brands are clearly taking mobile seriously as the media landscape moves away from static media and focuses on the interactive worlds of mobile, online and TV. For companies like Ericsson who have watched these changes evolve, the next few years present a huge opportunity. Brands are seeing the growth of mobile, and are realizing that their future revenues may depend on it. If companies the tools they need to go mobile, then everyone in the food chain, from hardware manufacturers to content publishers, will benefit.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />