Mobile Marketing | Page 17 | MMA Global
  2. Mobile Marketing
  2. Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing

Why Hispanic Marketers Need To Consider Mobile

June 24, 2008
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Why Hispanic Marketers Need To Consider Mobile
By Michael Foschetti, Managing Director, Mobisix
 
Mobile marketing is emerging as a powerful marketing tool for all marketers, but those trying to reach the Hispanic segment should really take note.
 
While online penetration and general technology adoption among the Hispanic segment lags the general market, the Hispanic segment significantly over-indexes in mobile phone and data usage. A 2007 Mobile Marketing Association )MMA) study found that 75 percent of Hispanic consumers own a mobile phone and use it regularly. They are also much more receptive to mobile marketing messages, particularly coupons, status alerts about accounts, and sweepstakes or contests. The rate of text message usage is also growing dramatically, increasing by 39 percent over the last 12 months, according to a recent M:Metrics study.
 
Hispanics are also ahead of the curve in active, engaged usage of mobile content, partially due to the fact that in many cases cell phones are serving as a replacement for a home computer or internet connection. The same MMA study found that this group is more likely to use wireless email, IM and Bluetooth functionality, to download games and to view mobile video. In fact, the Hispanic-focused MTV Tr3s mobile channel posted a 38 percent average monthly growth in video streams from February 2007 to February 2008. And social networking sites like MocoSpace boast a predominantly young Hispanic membership. Hispanic users are also using mobile search more than non-Hispanic users.
 
Brands across all industries – from lifestyle and consumer brands to financial institutions and automotive providers - have already begun to reach this audience through their handsets, with more surely to come. HipCricket’s new Hispanic mobile marketing network of over 50 radio and TV outlets will give marketers the ability to deliver highly targeted and interactive mobile content directly to opted-in, engaged users both locally and nationally.
 
Companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Ikea, Coca-Cola, Univision and McDonald’s have all recognized the potential that mobile marketing has to engage this audience and create a loyal customer base.
 
P&G’s CoverGirl was a premier advertiser in the first entertainment special on Univisionmovil.com, a mobile portal that features breaking news, music, horoscopes, entertainment and youth-oriented content. Univision Movil allows fans to access clips from their favorite Univision shows – bringing the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast TV network to cell phones. According to M:Metrics, 18.8 percent of English-speaking Hispanic subscribers are more inclined to access news and information via a mobile browser, compared to 9.6 percent of all subscribers.
 
Last year, McDonald’s promoted its Filet O’ Fish sandwich through a cross-channel promotion focusing on SMS short codes and the Hispanic market. Every component of the campaign, from point of purchase, banner ads and packaging, featured the mobile aspect, instructing customers to send a message to a short code to gain access to free content such as games, wallpapers and ringtones.
 
Mobile is clearly an essential component of the Hispanic marketing mix, and brands that recognize this market as the sophisticated, fast growing mobile user segment that it is will surely earn significant brand loyalty.
 
Mobisix is a full-service mobile marketing agency, focusing on general and Hispanic markets and driven by data and analytics.
 
 

Adding Mobile to the CRM Mix

June 20, 2008
Adding Mobile to the CRM Mix
By Patrick McHugh, executive vice president, Neolane, Inc.
 

It’s the moment that every marketer who considers themselves “tech savvy” dreads—when that new medium for reaching customers transitions from bleeding to leading edge. It happened with e-mail and Internet marketing, and now, after rapid adoption in Europe, it’s happening here in the States with mobile marketing and mobile CRM.

Marketing is undergoing a fundamental shift. The emergence of mobile CRM presents new opportunities to build lucrative customer relationships, while at the same time creating more complexity around related processes, functions and roles.
 
Marketers Want Mobile Applications. Their Existing Technology May Not.
Recently, we conducted a survey of North American direct marketers to gauge their emerging channel deployment strategies and adoption, and learn more about the challenges they face in managing the integration of emerging and traditional marketing channels.
Our research found that four out of five marketers plans to incorporate at least one additional emerging channel by the end of 2008 - most likely SMS or MMS. However, fewer than half were confident that their existing tools could effectively manage emerging marketing channels, or coordinate campaigns across emerging and traditional channels.
 
What are the specific challenges inherent in mobile CRM? 
  • The elusive single view of the customer. Mobile creates a new set of challenges for data gathering—particularly for companies that are running legacy systems that silo data.
  • Difficulties in managing consistent content across operational systems and channels of contact. From a content perspective, mobile communications must map well to communications through e-mail and paper-based channels.  From a measurement perspective, there are technology hurdles inherent in mapping mobile communications applications into legacy CRM systems all while tracking measurement metrics, new audience types and new engagement methods.  
  • Increasingly savvy, demanding customers. Customers who have embraced mobile technologies are expecting vendors to do the same. In short, their expectations are very high; you have one shot to get it right.
  • The challenges inherent in adding any new technology. Time and money are tight; companies are trying to stretch marketing dollars in order to do more with less.
Matching Mobile and CRM Systems
Marketers need to implement mobile technologies that can be easily integrated with existing CRM systems, in order to provide a complete view of touchpoints with customers across wireless, e-mail and paper-based media. Ultimately, customer data and interactions need to be consolidated in one place.
Enterprise-level marketing-management systems will play an important role for companies to effectively add mobile CRM to their arsenal in order to truly integrate marketing strategies to market on an individual level. Companies should make certain that these systems meet a number of criteria to solve the challenges I’ve outlined above, including:
 
Create a Single System of Record for 360-Degree Information. Marketers must have the technological infrastructure to automatically ensure they know enough about with whom they communicate.  Continuous monitoring and response mechanisms are necessary in order to best understand the implicit and explicit actions or behaviors of your customers based on communications through all channels, including mobile. Ideally, such a system will provide data on a much more granular level: “How did each and every customer respond, and what does that mean for the way in which I will market to them next?”  Sending a compelling text message or directing a customer or prospect to a WAP site won’t get you very far unless you understand how they responded and you automatically know what to do for your next point of contact – be it an email, another text message or, more traditionally, a direct mail piece.
 
Meet the Customer Where They Want to Meet. Be certain to know which customers are amenable to contact via mobile channels; and then, market to them appropriately by executing across emerging digital and traditional channels.
 
Personalize Content, Dynamically and Consistently. Choose a platform that can drive dynamic content personalization across all mediums to create more relevant two-way dialogue. Such a system should combine all channels, emerging and traditional—such as direct mail, e-mail, Web personalization, digital printing, WAP Push, SMS and MMS into a tightly-connected marketing program. Many existing solutions are built on direct-mail roots and lack the flexibility to support and smoothly integrate these new modes of communication.
 
Mobile is separate … but equal.  It’s a new channel that opens up dramatic new opportunities to engage customers 7x24.  But it can’t operate in a silo: mobile efforts have to feed the larger marketing beast. So to keep things humming, marketers need to have the infrastructure in place to bridge the gap between emerging and traditional channels and effectively interact with each customer at any point in time.  
 
About the author
As executive vice president of Neolane Inc., Patrick McHugh oversees all operations and is responsible for helping companies understand the strategic value of integrating emerging marketing technologies with traditional channels to drive revenue.  McHugh is a recognized visionary in CRM, direct marketing, analytics and data-warehousing.  He has more than 20 years of experience in customer marketing, sales operations, and senior management with groundbreaking software and services firms including Exchange Applications, Authentica )now part of EMC) and Outstart, Inc. 
 

 

Streamlining and Safeguarding the Relationship of Content Providers and Mobile Operators through Campaign Management and Analyti

May 28, 2008
Streamlining and Safeguarding the Relationship of Content Providers and Mobile Operators through Campaign Management and Analytics
 
Evanna Kearins, Director of Marketing,Valista
 
Operators need to ensure that off-deck services are legitimate, appropriate and consistent with their brand. Content providers also have a responsibility to ensure that their content and marketing efforts are aligned with the operators’ policies to safeguard and strengthen partner relations.  Operators can do this by evaluating and approving the content providers’ campaigns and the campaign lifecycle, including the business rules associated with age restricted content and services.
 
Campaigns are used in the US to provide details of a marketing campaign such as voting associated with an interactive TV show, a competition on a drink bottle or the latest song from a particular artist to operators. Campaigns can be one off such as voting for your favorite singer in American Idol or a subscription such as ‘ringtone of the week’ where the customer pays a fee every week. Operators review the details and approve the campaign for their network or they reject it and prevent it from being used by their customers. This model provides the operator strict control over access to their customers and the use of their customers’ bills as a payment mechanism and enables operators to provide good customer service should things go wrong. This is very different from other markets where anything can be sold to customers and the operator has no visibility as to what is being sold and how to support the customer when things go wrong.
 
Campaign Management provides facilities for the on-boarding, review and approval of new campaigns and is specifically relevant for the Premium SMS-based off-deck market, although it can also apply to other forms of billing such as WAP billing. The requirement for Campaign Management is driven by the mobile operators in the US, where a strict set of guidelines and rules are enforced by operators that require the prior submission and approval of all Premium SMS campaigns before they may be billed for by each operator. This is designed to limit consumer exposure to unsolicited billing by third parties or abuse of the Premium SMS charging mechanism by content providers.
 
The problem however is that each operator tends to define a campaign in a different way. They do not have a common set of guidelines, workflows or data fields for campaigns submission and approval. In order to enable a more robust and consistent method of managing campaigns, operators in the USA need to come together to agree a standard which would define common workflows and a consistent approval process. This would make it much easier and quicker for aggregators and large content providers to collate and submit information for campaigns which would also speed up the time to market for new content and services by automating the process for on-boarding content providers and setting up and approving their campaigns. It would also reduce the time required to deal with queries and increases customer satisfaction, making it easier and more efficient for operators to support their partners, reducing the costs and staff requirements for the operator, aggregator and content provider.
 
The use of campaign analytics allows mobile operators to more accurately predict specific metrics of campaigns based on partner performance history, related popularity of similar campaigns and other trends. This enables operators to better determine which campaigns may be successful and plan performance from both a revenue and network traffic perspective, assisting in partner negotiations and strategy by producing objective, measurable results of partner performance and ensuring predictions match reality. The reporting piece of campaign analytics shows with great accuracy the performance of a given campaign. It can be broken down into detail such as price points, charging models, least and most popular campaigns etc. Operators can then use campaign analytics to manage network bandwidth, predict and view bottlenecks in the system due to high volume campaigns running simultaneously and can give priority to more important campaigns e.g. interactive TV. They can also plan network sizing for messaging and data throughput and determine where the most revenue is coming from.
 
Campaign Analytics can be used to:
  • Ensure the network has sufficient capacity
  • Allow the operator to work out quiet periods in the network and then construct marketing programs to fill the quiet periods
  • Predict if it is worth processing the campaign. For example a partner may state that campaign will generate 100,000 transactions per month at $0.99 each. However, historically they only achieve 10% of the number of transactions they claim indicating this campaign will achieve only achieve a revenue of $999 per month which may not be worth the effort of approving, testing and managing it. Alternatively the operator could use different settlement terms.
These projections start with campaign submission and during the approval process the operator can examine the projected transaction volumes for the campaign. This can be used to determine the value of the campaign to the operator and guide the approval process. Once a campaign has been approved and is active then the operator can monitor its progress against the projection. The operator can also determine when they have peaks of campaigns and when they may be able to handle additional campaigns and fill gaps. Operators can also potentially share the results of campaigns with their aggregator partners, which would help them to fine tune future marketing campaigns with the content providers. This would further help to streamline and safeguard the relationship between content providers, aggregators and operators, as they work more closely together to be successful.
Business conditions are changing more rapidly than ever before, putting pressure on mobile operators to become more agile and proactive in building and strengthening relationships with valued customers. By applying predictive analytics to their existing marketing processes, operators can engage with customers more profitably. Campaign management and analytics tools can help to increase both customer value and loyalty by optimizing interactions across all channels—including outbound marketing campaigns and inbound customer contacts. It also helps to streamline the relationship between operators and content providers ensuring that the right metrics are in place to ensure their mutual success.
 
Competition for brand share grows constantly as operators strive to improve their marketing strategies, reduce service costs, increase customer loyalty and work more closely with their content provider partners. To compete effectively, products must be marketed to the highest value customer segments through the most efficient distribution channels, and supported by effective messaging. Consequently, campaign management and analytics have become necessary and invaluable tools in improving the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
 
 

Avoiding the novelty trap and breaking into mainstream

April 25, 2008
Avoiding the novelty trap and breaking into mainstream
By: Warren Billington, VP of Sales – Mobile Marketing, 5th Finger
 
This article was contributed by Mobile Marketer and can also be found at www.mobilemarketer.com.
 
Bend it like Brady, not like Beckham – how mobile marketing can avoid the ‘novelty’ trap and break through to the mainstream

As an Australian, my idea of ‘football’ always involved a round ball. Goals, not touchdowns were the aim of the game. Having recently moved to the U.S., it’s a different story. It’s hard to see what lasting impact David Beckham’s move to the U.S. will have on a country that’s not obsessed with his kind of football. In many ways, you could say the same about the realm of mobile marketing.
For many countries, including Australia, mobile marketing is already a part of the strategic tool kit for brands. Here, there’s still some work to do in integrating a mobile component as part of an extended marketing campaign. In some quarters, it’s seen as an afterthought, or worse, not a thought at all.
 
So, here are some challenges preventing mobile marketing from breaking through to the mainstream marketing consciousness. And, ways that mobile marketers can learn from the sports world when it comes to making mobile count in the mass market:
 
·          Help wanted: major players in the U.S.: In part because of the slower pick-up of “mobile” in the U.S. compared to other markets, the mobile marketing industry here is in its infant stages – the experienced professionals aren’t here, like with soccer in America. It can be challenging to get campaigns off the ground without the army of seasoned mobile marketing professionals that many other markets have on their side. Marketers should consult those who are experts in the field to ensure they get value out of their campaigns.
 
·          Breaking down the defensive walls: Even after the uptake of SMS messaging in the U.S., brands have been limited by the walls between carriers. Brands that did earlier promotions with a single carrier, were disappointed with limited reach to one carrier’s subscriber list. Brands are now able to do more cross-network promotion, so should take advantage of the potential here. Complex and often restrictive policies make it necessary to enlist industry veterans who have the expertise in navigating these policies for a mobile campaign.
 
·          Breaking through other, proven marketing strategies: There are established and proven marketing methods that already work in the U.S., which have a clear ROI. Now that the U.S. mobile market has skyrocketed over the last few years, marketers feel more comfortable with trying out this technology. Many early programs didn’t dedicate enough budget to mobile pieces or promote them in the most effective way, leading to an even smaller participation rate than the market at the time would have expected.
As some of the tangible results from mobile marketing become more high profile -- just like Beckham, others should stand up and follow to achieve that success.
You have to invest and support a game if you want it to be successful. In the same way, mobile marketing needs to be supported financially - marketers need to begin testing mobile and increase their understanding of the game so they can then integrate it into their strategic marketing planning for the long term.
 
 

This article was written by Warren Billington, VP of Sales – Mobile Marketing. The content was contributed by Mobile Marketer and can also be found at http://www.mobilemar

Sowing Seeds: Why Planning for Experimentation in Emerging Media Pays Off

March 24, 2008
Sowing Seeds: Why Planning for Experimentation in Emerging Media Pays Off
Patrick Moorhead | February
 
The debate continues to rage in digital media – is mobile at or near maturity? Is 2008 the year mobile is going to matter? When will mobile media be a truly valuable channel investment for marketers?
 
While opinions vary, lately I’m inclined to take a somewhat controversial position – the year that may turn out to matter most in mobile was last year. Further, I suggest from now on, the year that will matter most in mobile is going to be last year. Not 2007, but whatever the previous year happens to be. I can hear the collective “huh?”, so let me explain a little, and in the process shed some light on mobile as a marketing tool. More importantly I’ll explain why we believe so firmly in staking out budgets and strategies for testing emerging media channels as a regular part of the ongoing planning process.
 
Problem:
Organizations debate how and when to invest marketing resources in new digital media, such as mobile technology.
 
Solution:
Emerging media is an empirical science that requires a pioneering approach in order to truly understand all of the factors involved.
 
Benefit:
Marketers who approach planning for new media experimentation proactively have access to real outcomes, in addition to increased confidence and skill with media testing in general.
 
We started building the machine last year
As we get involved in account planning with our clients this year, it’s apparent that those who invested in test programs with mobile as part of campaigns in 2007 are now reaping the benefits. Seemingly small )and sometimes challenging) first steps into mobile marketing are suddenly jetpropelling clients and brands into a new dynamic with their marketing and their conversations with customers. Many clients over the years have heard me talk about why investing in new media tests is important – I tend to speak in terms of “the machine.”
 
If we think of mobile )or any emerging media technology) as an entirely new mechanism within our marketing and media ecology, its critical to understand how difficult it is to both build the machine and use it at the same time, especially when market forces apply pressure and technology becomes a competitive price of entry. I’m not going to dwell on that here – instead I’m going to discuss a handful of ways that I’ve seen our clients leap ahead in their skill and use of mobile marketing as a result of making the decision to start building the machine last year.
 
We know if our targets respond or not, and what aspects they gravitate to
Many readers have also heard me say that mobile is empirical science, so no matter how much eMarketer, Jupiter, and m:Metrics data you look at about your target consumer, the only real way to understand if he or she will respond to you on mobile is to try. In response, many of our clients say, “Well, if they don’t, I just wasted a bunch of money I could have used someplace else.” To this I say – I don’t see any waste. Getting the right mix of media channels sorted out around your core customer is critical, and if it costs us a bit to determine definitively they aren’t someplace, so be it. Knowing for certain that your core customer is reachable )or isn’t, as the case may be) in mobile is a huge benefit in planning, allowing you to either embrace it and develop, or cast it aside and spend time and resources more profitably elsewhere.
 

We know who owns campaigns in the organization

 

Knowing for certain that your core customer is reachable )or isn’t, as the case may be) in mobile is a huge benefit in planning.
 
A resolution that initially posed significant challenges to client mobile campaigns ultimately resulted in a new level of clarity about responsibility within the organization, determining where budgets came from and how everyone should go about collaborating to take advantage of mobile marketing. While I can’t disclose specific scenarios I’ve witnessed in our clients businesses, I can make some generalizations that illustrate the benefits. In many companies, media and marketing behaviors are compartmentalized from both a budgeting and staffing perspective. Sometimes lines are drawn around direct marketing and brand marketing; sometimes between digital and traditional, and for larger businesses with a deep product portfolio, between lines of business within the categories above.
 
What’s tricky about this landscape is that when mobile really functions well, it tends to cross organizational lines, which is the reason we refer to mobile as a kind of “connective tissue” in the media mix. For example, we’ve seen great results from opt-in SMS programs last year, in particular those that had opt-in integration in print or collateral advertising materials. These organizations shattered the wall between digital and traditional media teams, forcing the decision of who calls the shots on mobile opt-in from a strategy perspective. Figuring out who pays for mobile and out of which budget can be tricky. Tests funded out of “digital” or “direct” marketing budgets, which achieved success in ’07, are gaining subsidies from their colleagues in “brand” marketing. All of this is shaking out because the testing of last year helped crystallize issues. While I can’t tell you where mobile belongs in your organization, I can tell you that those clients that rolled up their sleeves in mobile last year are a fair way down the path of knowing the answer for themselves. And that’s exciting!
 
We have real data on what tactics delivered the desired results
Mobile, perhaps more than most other emerging media opportunities, offers a startling array of complex options at the tactical level – so much so that it can be daunting to comprehend even after being in the space for some time: mobile display, mobile text links, search, SMS, MMS, WAP, downloads, and applications. And that’s not counting the variety of ways to look at buying mobile – CPC, CPM, CPA, SMS rates per message, bulk message pricing, premium messaging, ad supported content, in-SMS advertising – it can sometimes seem too much to sort out. Our clients have advantages that go a long way towards simplifying and refining the decision making process about what to buy, how to buy it, and what works in getting through the goal posts in a mobile campaign.
 
First, they’re leveraging our expertise in digital media planning and buying. We’ve been steadily building our competency in understanding this landscape for some time and are hitting our stride on how to organize, price, negotiate and buy the various components of mobile. It’s been trial and error, but through the ups and downs, we’re wrapping our arms around it.
More importantly, we managed the investments of our pioneering clients in 2007 and made these resources perform for the campaign and the brand. That’s been really exciting. Delivering the year-end reviews on our 2007 mobile campaigns and showing which tactics hit, which missed, which were priced for value, which were bargains, and which ones didn’t get us what we wanted, has been a revealing activity this past month. Further, as I’ve started the 2008 planning cycle with these teams, our ability to make crisp, quick decisions around tactics has liberated us to think bigger and better about the overall possibilities for the campaign and the channel mixture. Knowing that buying mobile ad media on a certain network or under a certain negotiated scheme )CPM, CPC, guaranteed impressions, etc.) has allowed us to laser focus our client investments in tactics we’ve proven to perform and deliver value.
 
When mobile really functions well, it tends to cross organizational lines, which is the reason we refer to mobile as a kind of “connective tissue” in the media mix.
 
What we do with data – measure, pick through, translate, analyze
We love measuring. Everything. In emerging media and in particular in mobile, as performance data comes back from the campaigns we begin to pick through it, translate it, and start to draw some conclusions. Having the real numbers in front of us has opened up some new frontiers in cross-media analysis, revealing relationships between online and traditional media, between online and mobile, and between mobile and print and out of home. It has also shown us some unexpected anomalies that seem to signal new directions in the mobile space. For example, in more than one campaign, we’ve been able to follow a sales conversion at the Web site from a click on a mobile banner. Not just once. Several times. We were surprised on two fronts – we didn’t think it was possible to follow a user across that trajectory. Two – and this is critical – if a handful of users are finding a way )and expressing a desire!) on the handset to complete a transaction initiated by a mobile ad, which we didn’t do anything to facilitate or enhance – imagine what could happen if we did!
 
These little revolutions aside, just seeing how many clicks, landing page and WAP page views, and SMS messages sent from marketing programs has given us a new vantage point on what’s possible and has exposed places where mobile performance measurement needs some improvement to really deliver.
 
We have a viable structure for prioritizing the next round of investment – this paper should make that obvious. Because of the tactical insights we’ve uncovered, we’re now in a solid position to draw lines around what level of investment is appropriate )and will yield results) in mobile for our clients. This advantage is one enjoyed by all of our clients, not just those who waded into the water last year. As we develop and refine the various aspects of mobile through these executions, we’re shaping the industry and beginning to set benchmarks for the kinds of results possible at various levels of investment.
 
At the very least, for those clients who are now examining what year two in mobile looks like, we can turn a rational and well informed eye towards making decisions. Should you scale up?
Should you cut back because you hit enough marks? Should you hold over your allocation from last year, but tweak it based on new information? Now, we have the tools we need to help you make decisions with managed risk and high confidence.
 
Conclusion: Spring Is On The Way, Time To Plant Some Seeds.
The point of this essay is not to say that mobile is the right channel and tool set for all marketers.
On the contrary, we discovered a couple of campaigns where mobile is not a good option, at least right now. The point here is to unravel issues around the other side of emerging media
experimentation, to demonstrate at the very least, we can qualify and quantify tangible advantages our pioneering clients are enjoying as a result of developing structured, focused new media programs last year. After all, last year was a pretty important year in mobile.
 
About the Author
Patrick Moorhead is a specialist in emerging media at Avenue A | Razorfish where he leads R&D efforts and client implementations on behalf of the agency’s Emerging Media Solutions group in the Central US. As the digital landscape evolves and new ways of accessing content proliferate, Patrick helps clients and staff understand and assess a number of emerging media technologies and their practical applications as marketing vehicles. A sought-after expert and evangelist for cutting-edge media technology, Patrick has counseled many executives of the agency’s Fortune 500 clientele, including JCPenney, Kraft Foods, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Starwood Hotels Group. He has presented at numerous industry conferences and events, including Ad:tech, OMMA Expo, SXSW )South by Southwest) Interactive, Digital Signage Expo, and Digital Hollywood Media Summit. A prolific writer on emerging media topics, Patrick was a key contributor to the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Avenue A | Razorfish Digital Outlook Reports’ and his white papers are widely read in new media and Internet advertising circles.
 
You can contact Patrick Moorhead at [email protected].
 
About Avenue A | Razorfish™
Avenue A | Razorfish™ is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology services agencies in the world. The company helps industry leaders such as Starwood Hotels, Kraft, Ford Motor Company and Carnival Cruise Lines use digital channels to acquire and service customers. Avenue A | Razorfish's full suite of digital offerings includes online advertising, Web site design and development, email and search engine marketing, emerging media strategies, and enterprise portal development. Its award-winning client teams have a great understanding of customer needs and provide solutions through distinct business disciplines, which include: analytics, strategy, technology, media, creative design and user experience. Avenue A | Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and global operations in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Visit www.avenuea-razorfish.com for more information.
 
Avenue A | Razorfish
821 2nd Avenue, Suite 1800
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206.816.8800
Fax: 206.816.8808
For more information please visit: avenuea-razorfish.com.
 
 
© Avenue A | Razorfish™. All rights reserved.
Avenue A and Razorfish are registered trademarks.
 

 

Just because it’s mainstream, it doesn’t mean it’s boring

February 26, 2008
Just because it’s mainstream, it doesn’t mean it’s boring
An agency perspective on the US mobile marketing industry
 
By Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association
 
Early in the New Year, it is time to assess the state of the industry and get the industry leaders commentaries on what the year holds. For this column, I touched base with a few of the leaders in the agency space to get their take on where we are headed with mobile marketing in 2008. My original intent for this column was to compare a person’s time in mobile to dog years -- as time either stands still or we put on more years in the short period of time that we have been immersed. All those that I spoke with feel they are 7 - 18 in dog years. Don’t know about you readers, but some days, maybe those after walking the floors of Mobile World Congress, I feel much older.

So is the future bright for mobile marketing in the United States in 2008? According to Courtney Acuff from denuo, a Publicis Groupe Company, “We are beyond the introductory stage but we still have a long way to go. Internal and client education is still necessary, a task that isn't as easy as it sounds given the plethora of companies in the ecosystem today.”

And, from Maria Mandel, Ogilvy, similar thoughts about the mobile marketing industry in the United States. “We have come a long way in mobile, but we have a long way to go,” she says. “The mobile industry seems to think we are way ahead but in terms of total spend, we are only just beginning. There is lots of education to do.”

The factors

So what is holding us back for broad scale mobile marketing in the United States?

--Reach

Although we are seeing significant adoption of wireless services, the consumer is only just beginning to interact with their favorite brands through their mobile devices. We also need to encourage broader adoption of more advanced data services -- mobile web, MMS, video and television, etc. Only by expanding reach can we optimize the always on, always available mobile channel.

--Complexity of Mobile Programs

Developing applications for each handset and operating system is very complex, depending on what you are trying to do. WAP sites/downloads add their own complexities.

--Measurement

Industry standard metrics and measurements are only just beginning )based on work from organizations like the Mobile Marketing Association). But the consistency of measurements are only the beginning. Category-specific benchmarks will be key as the media channel continues to mature and then, understanding mobile’s impact in cross media will also be key. Mobile is the bridge to engagement and understanding the metrics around it will only help encourage adoption.

--Operators

From each agency I spoke with, more than are referenced here in this article, each asked to work with the wireless operators to help get the industry further aligned and expedite timelines for the large brands. Then there is the topic of revenue shares and making the rev share deals optimal for all in the value chain.

--Mobile’s fit in the brand spend

And perhaps one of the largest impediments to brands spending money is the fact that mobile is not a separate budget line item, but instead competes with interactive dollars. For 2008 mobile is becoming a line item for some companies but how do we raise the overall awareness to have mobile highlighted?

What’s working today? According to Mandel, we should be talking about what is here, now and ubiquitous but we tend to jump to the “sexy” applications -- video, location services, etc. Overall we are doing a disservice to the industry by talking about future opportunities, which often cause the new entrants to miss the tried and true -- SMS, mobile media and voice. Each of these wireless media types are seeing enormous interest and significant interactions from brands and consumer alike. Let’s focus on the mobile elements which are driving ROI for the brands that are engaging them. “Just because it is mainstream, doesn’t mean that it’s boring,” says Mandel. Similar to the article I wrote last year for RCR Wireless News, voice is often overlooked and for certain demographics, it really makes sense. Key is selection of media depends on target audience and what you are trying to achieve.

What have some of the successes been in mobile marketing to date:

--ROI )Return on Investment)
Simple programs sometimes perform the best
Focus on utility or entertain, surprise and delight.
Leverage the mobile device for what it is best used for -- interaction and engagement.

--The Hype
Building the Buzz: The industry has done a great job of building the buzz, excitement and energy around mobile.
Recognition: Much recognition has been given to leaders in the space for their achievements and excellence in mobile campaign success. This recognition has ultimately helped to build our industry -- and drive the hype for new entrants and new opportunities.

2008 Predictions

In the last few years in the United States mobile marketing industry, much has happened but we have a long way to go. Mandel says she “looks enviously at other markets and sees how we could apply the large ad spend that we have here, the way they do there.” We have the budgets in the United States, let’s make it easier for the brands to spend it.

John Hadl, Managing Partner & Founder of BrandinHand, Inc. tells me, “We are at the tipping point in terms of consumer adoption and the starting gate in term of marketers readiness to embrace the medium. 2008 is the year or rising tides ... a rising tide lifts all ships.”

According to Acuff, “2008 isn't going to be ‘the year’ but I anticipate that we will see further program sophistication and tighter integration with larger communications plans; the majority of consumers are no longer novices and the programs need to reflect this even if it is a client's first execution.”

And on a final note, comments from MMA Global Chairman Cyriac Roeding last week at the AlwaysOn conference in New York, "How do we expect anyone to take this )mobile) seriously as an advertising device if we keep telling them about the unbelievable complexity that arises out of the fact that we have 20 carriers in the U.S., then we have fundamental technologies, GSM and CDMA. Let's make it simpler. Let's talk about usability, let's not talk about the next 15 menu items, and let's not try to copy another medium. )Mobile) is a new medium in its own right."

Let’s keep it simple. Let’s expand the mobile knowledge base. And let’s teach brands, agencies and consumers how to leverage mobile marketing )and advertising) successfully. Let’s make 2008 the year for mobile marketing!

You may contact Laura directly at [email protected]. You may contact RCR Wireless News at [email protected].
 

The Triple Play of Mobile Marketing

January 29, 2008
The Triple Play of Mobile Marketing
by Per Holmkvist, Managing Director, Mobiento
 
The mobile operator has a unique opportunity and responsibility in the mobile marketing value chain. Never before has one player in the marketing value chain had so big influence on the development of a new marketing channel. It is as if the print shop would rule the world of print advertising, or if the ISP would be an important player in the online advertising value chain.
 
The mobile operator holds three major mobile marketing roles; The Enabler; the Advertiser; and the Media owner. These roles have been important in different stages of the mobile marketing industry, chronologically:
 
1. The Enabler. For advertisers to be interested in a new media, it requires reach. Reach is created when a lot of people understand a media and how to use it. In order to make this happen it is very important that the operators strive to set common commercial and technical standards, not just nurturing their own walled garden. In the beginning of mobile marketing common messaging short codes was a very important step. Today setting understandable data traffic business models )read: flat rate) and supporting mobile ad format standards is equally important for the continued development of the industry.
 
2. The Advertiser. The mobile operators’ marketing departments’ use of the mobile channel seems obvious today, although some operators have been very slow in the adoption of it. The role as early adopter, showing what is possible in mobile marketing and allocating budgets for it, has been and is very important. If the mobile operators themselves aren’t using mobile marketing, who should?
 
3. The Media owner. It is now dawning on most mobile operators that there might be a new revenue stream in mobile advertising. It is quite a late awakening as the opportunity is not new. For example, who knows how many voice mail sms alerts that have been sent without utilising the spare space in them? A problem is that the operator revenues derived from mobile advertising will be minor in the beginning, compared to voice or messaging for that matter. However the mobile operator portals will provide the best reach and the most detailed segmentation information for advertisers, so to make advertisers interested, again the mobile operators’ role is very important.
 
Hence, the mobile operators’ contribution is necessary to continue to drive mobile marketing and advertising forward. However, to reach the full potential the mobile operators must not only get the above three roles working internally. Mobile operators must also work together, towards common goals. Having worked closely with mobile operators in all three roles, the impression is that in an often vast organisation one hand seldom knows what the other hand is doing. Mobile operators lack a common mobile marketing approach that all their units know and strive for.
 
For the mobile operator with the mobile marketing opportunity looming ahead this is a problem. For the industry as a whole it is catastrophic. The problem lies in the mobile operators’ transition from technology enabler to media house. This is a quantum leap, which has to be made in short time. Some of their employees will never understand it, but most of them must.
 
The final realisation a mobile operator must make is that not only must they get common mobile marketing goals internally; they must also start cooperating with other operators. Mobile advertising revenues will continue to be minor unless all operators realise it is not about the traditional operator vs operator competition.

It is about mobile advertising against print and TV advertising.  

Some mobile operators have come very far, some have barely started. But all players in the mobile marketing value chain should work for pushing these giants to take the necessary steps for continued evolution.

Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector: The Americas

December 17, 2007
Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector: The Americas
 
by Diarmiud Mallon, Vertical Markets Senior Offer Manager, Sybase 365
 
Throughout 2007, Sybase 365 conducted mobile banking surveys of consumers across three regions: the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The survey was conducted by Loudhouse Research, an independent research company based in the UK.
 
 
A wide range of mobile users were surveyed in each country. Questions ranged from whether those surveyed had used mobile banking and frequency, if they knew whether or not their bank offered mobile services, whether they would switch banks to gain access to mobile banking, and what types of services they have used via mbanking.
 
Mobile users in the Americas—specifically the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—showed a keen eye for their personal finances—42% claim to know exactly how much money they have in the bank. Argentineans are the most on the ball when it comes to the state of their finances )54% claim to know their exact bank balance), although they are also the most likely to have no idea, demonstrating an “all or nothing” approach.
 
Such strong financial insight was achieved by regular checking of their bank balances. Americans and Brazilians are the most likely to check their bank balances daily, while Canadians prefer to check their balance every few days.
 
These two trends—closely watching personal finances and interacting regularly with a financial institution—clearly point to the positive impact mobile banking services could have on these markets. Basic services that can be offered include “push” SMS bank account balance alerts and bank balance inquiries. Capitalizing on this “nano-economic” mindset will enable banks in the Americas to launch services that will greatly appeal to their customers.
 
One consistent result across all three of our global mobile banking surveys )Europe, Asia- Pacific, and the Americas) is the need for raising awareness of mobile banking services among consumers. More than half surveyed did not know whether their bank offered mobile banking services or not, and only 13% were able to categorically state that their bank does not offer mobile banking. Awareness of their bank’s mobile banking services was the highest in Brazil )56%), and was the lowest in the U.S. and Mexico. In Canada, almost three quarters did not know if their bank offered the service or not.
 
Banks that have launched mobile banking services, or are planning to do so, must first focus on educating their customers about the many benefits of mobile—over and above the benefits of current banking channels, such as the Internet or visiting a local branch.
 
For banks, selecting new services to launch is vital to building interest in the mobile channel. More than 6 in 10 mobile users said they would be interested in being able to access account balances via their mobile. Security safeguards )transaction alerts, blocking a card) are the second tier of popular offerings, followed by account alerts. Over 25% of those polled said they would be interested in the transaction side of mobile banking and would like to make payments via their mobile.
 
Carefully selecting services that address consumers’ current needs will enable banks to build momentum in the mobile channel, and to reach the critical mass of customers that is required to make the service successful. Once completed, the more niche services—such as making mobile payments—will find wider adoption rates.
 
Finally, there is potential for converting interest in services into a willingness to pay. Respondents in the Americas survey were more willing to pay for mobile services than were their European counterparts. Money transfer services are particularly ripe for paid service, followed by making payments to existing payees. Security services are another area where almost 50% of potential users were prepared to pay. There is strong resistance to paying for informational or marketing services, generally, with stock market information being the exception.
 
If you would like to find out more about the Americas, Europe, or Asia-Pacific survey results, please go to http://www.sybase.com/365. Then, in the lower right corner, click the “Mbanking Survey” medallion, and download the survey of your choice.
 
 

Mobile commerce: Coupons, 2D Codes and Purchases...Oh my!

December 17, 2007

Mobile commerce:  Coupons, 2D Codes and Purchases...Oh my!

by Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association

There has long been a debate about mobile commerce. When will it come to the United States en masse? When will the consumer have unfettered access to purchasing via their mobile phone? When will coupons take on mass adoption and appeal worldwide? The following article highlights three mobile commerce companies and their solutions—as well as assesses when we can expect to see mass rollout in the United States.

 
ShopText: Physical goods purchasing
 
Brands are beginning to see mobile as an opportunity to extend the reach with the consumer and measure the success of their marketing initiatives. A New York based company called ShopText provides the brand or advertiser the opportunity to drive ROI )return on investment) and link the consumer directly to a product or service through an ad. Through ShopText, advertising is now enabling acquisitions and not just purchases, but sampling, loyalty, etc. The ShopText application allows marketers to know who their customers are, including their address, demographic profile, etc.
 
How is the service enabled? A consumer will set up an account instantly on their mobile phone or at shoptext.com, which will not only collect their demographic information but allow them to input their credit card to purchase physical goods through the ShopText network. In the mobile registration scenario, the consumer is called back via an IVR )interactive voice response) system that will walk them through the registration process. Security, on an ongoing basis, is ensured by the customer entering a PIN code whenever they enact a purchase through their mobile device, like withdrawing cash at an ATM.
 
So far, the response has been tremendous. Consumers are able to send a text message and purchase products when they see them in magazines, on billboards, or in any other medium—immediately!
 
M-commerce applications will be a key driver for educating consumers on how to use mobile. According to Mark Kaplan, co-founder and CMO for ShopText, “After one campaign, we received about a dozen e-mails telling us our application was the first time that they'd interacted with mobile. Overall, there's been little resistance. Outreach is obviously a top issue in terms of educating consumers on the capabilities of their mobile device.”
 
ShopText implementations to date have included over 50 pages in CosmoGIRL, sampling for Pantene as well as Old Spice, Neutrogena, Clean & Clear, Bonne Bell; "Lucky," which has featured products from Elizabeth Arden, Mavi Jeans, Calvin Klein; and Knitting Factory, which is selling concert tickets by text from its print media and off its Web site.
 
Sweepstakes, digital and physical goods pairing, ticket purchasing—the options are truly endless.
 
Scanbuy: 2D Codes
 
2D codes are a hot topic! And, at most conferences, the question is eventually raised, when will 2D bar codes come to the United States? These codes allow consumers to use their wireless devices to interact in a graphical manner with traditional and digital media. The unique, two-dimensional bar codes, which can be placed on any item, allow the consumer to take a picture using their cameraphone. Then, through bar code reading software, the 2D code is interpreted to provide product information, downloads and more. 2D codes are a visual system allowing consumers to access relevant information much like short codes, IVR or other mobile media techniques.
 
In Japan, approximately 40% of consumers have used bar codes through their mobile device. Why so high? Japanese operators and handset manufacturers have worked together to ensure devices support visual bar code technology, helping to drive adoption. However, the Japanese business model isn't supported by mobile advertising, and instead consumers are charged standard data rates. In South Korea, where codes are also utilized, each operator has chosen to pursue its own 2D strategy, hindering broad scale consumer adoption. There are many implementations of 2D codes in Korea, but no ubiquity for brands looking to deploy cross operator campaigns. In the Philippines, handset manufacturers sell directly to the consumer and in this market, adoption of 2D codes is having some success. In this ad-supported market, brands are able to secure their own codes and launch to the consumer. Brands pay on a per-campaign basis, but per-click may prove to be the ideal business model.
 
In France, the Paris transport system has launched an interactive campaign using 2D codes with New York-based Scanbuy. The consumer can scan a code and see when the next bus or subway will arrive. Consumers who don't have a bar code scanning tool on their device can access the application to download through text messaging or a wireless Internet site.
 
What have been obstacles to adoption in the United States? The lack of cameraphone consumer adoption, cost-effective pricing models as well as overall consumer education. A broad effort at educating consumers and advertisers about the technology is needed, as well as point-of-sale integration for applications that use 2D codes for mobile commerce, says Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO of Scanbuy.
 
Demand on the advertiser side is huge. Advertisers get it, says Bulkeley. Print publishers are especially interested in 2D campaigns and what the visual opportunity can do for them. Most promising uses for 2D technology include ticketing, couponing and product or service information. The key is applications which rely on consumer pull to access the information.
 
Cosmo Girl launched an application with Mobot in 2006 based on pure image recognition. Cosmo Girl readers were encouraged to take photos with their mobile device of ads or features in the publication and send them to the magazine for a chance to win prizes. The Cosmo Girl application wasn't based on 2D codes, but rather image recognition. Bulkeley says image recognition is the “holy grail, but making it a reality is years away."
 
In the United States today, Scanbuy is launching U.S. campaigns targeted towards specific devices and demographics. "People change their behavior based on ubiquity," Bulkeley said. This means 2D applications, on a broad scale in the U.S., are at least 18 to 24 months away. Scanbuy has used the technology as part of the U.S. Air Force's "Do Something Amazing" campaign, which has been featured at venues including NASCAR and other sporting events across the country.
 
Cellfire: Mobile coupons
 
Ever try a mobile coupon application? I recently downloaded the Cellfire application to my Blackberry and was surprised to see the number of offers and opportunities for redemption through the Cellfire service. I contacted Brent Dusing, CEO of Cellfire, to learn the current status of their mobile couponing business in the United States. Is mobile couponing a reality for U.S. mobile users today? The short answer is yes! The Cellfire application is today available to every consumer on every network—either on-deck, or as a downloadable application.
 
Is it successful? In the print coupon world, industry average for redemptions is around 0.58% but for the mobile coupons from Cellfire, redemptions are in the 5 to 15% range. What drives redemption? Merchant, brand, and type of offer )i.e. buy one, get one free vs. discount off total purchase). The Cellfire coupons are currently redeemable across over 10,000 locations across the country and include large retailers such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Virgin and others. To date, there have been approximately 7 million coupons issued for a total of $21 million in savings.
 
What are the inhibitors to broad scale mobile coupon adoption in the United States? Why are we not seeing more merchants using the services? Some would argue that broad scale adoption has already occurred—but given broad retailer awareness, I would argue this is not yet the case. Although point-of-sale )POS) integration is not necessary, a successful deployment will require successful expertise and implementation at the retailer. “POS integration is not a cookie cutter approach—expertise is critical” says Dusing.
 
What about other markets outside of the United States? Couponing is not a global phenomenon and every market is unique. Mobile Dreams Factory in Spain has deployed a mobile couponing application with a large beverage company which is showing success.
 
For more information on mobile coupons, download the Introduction to Mobile Coupons guide from the MMA, available at www.mmaglobal.com/mobilecoupons.pdf
 
You may contact Laura directly at [email protected]. You may contact RCR Wireless News at [email protected].
 
 

Mobile Ain’t Email: Navigating the Nuances and Nuisances of Mobile Marketing

October 12, 2007

Mobile Ain't Email: Navigating the Nuances and Nuisances of Mobile Marketing

Written on February 22, 2007, published on www.adotas.com
By Brian Hecht
Used with permission from ADOTAS, Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Submitted to the MMA by Kikucall

Back in 2002, I took a research trip to London to investigate the emergence of mobile marketing. Then as now, the Europeans were far ahead of us Americans when it came to mobile. Americans in 2002 were just realizing that they could receive and actually send a text message from their very own cellphones. Meanwhile in Europe, teenagers were furiously texting to each other, and big brands were beginning to experiment with mobile as a marketing channel. So, in those days, if you wanted to glimpse the future of mobile marketing in America, you only needed to hop a plane to Heathrow and start taking notes.

I went to see a friend who worked at an interactive agency in London. He’d said that they were doing some mobile marketing themselves, and I wanted to see first-hand how it was being done. I had already set up a shop to start testing mobile in America, but I was a bit stymied by the technology end of things. I’m a marketer, not a telecommunications expert. So the first thing I wanted to know was how the guts worked. How did the messages actually get from your database out into the cellular ethersphere and into consumers’ handsets?
When I met the CEO of this agency, that was the first question I asked. He looked at me like I was an idiot. He pointed to his laptop sitting on his desk.

“I don’t understand what you’re asking,” he finally replied. “It all comes out of there.”
I begged him to elaborate. “I just plug my phone into the back of my laptop,” he explained, “and we wrote a little script that just, you know, sends them through the phone.”
To my British friend, it was the most obvious thing in the world. But to my American ears, it didn’t add up. There was no way to plug my American cellphone into a laptop. And even if I could, there’s no function to just send text messages. I knew enough about the American market to understand that there were many complications to take into account. Each American carrier )like Verizon or Sprint) had their own very particular way to send messages through their system. And even if you were technologically able to send bulk messages, you needed the carriers’ permission to do so.

I’m still no expert on the British mobile networks, and I’m not entirely sure whether what my friend was doing was kosher. But our firm has now operated scores of mobile marketing campaigns in the U.S., and there’s one thing I’m sure of: In the U.S. there simply is no “plug and play” way to operate a mobile campaign the way you’d send an email blast.
It is tempting to think of sending text messages like sending email. But there are crucial differences on both the marketing and the technological fronts that every marketer needs to think about. Here are the key differences to think if you’re someone who is familiar with email marketing, and thinking of moving into mobile marketing:

1. The Pipes are not Open: The Internet is not owned by anybody, so if you have an Internet connection then you can send email. There’s no real barrier to sending out batches of emails, notwithstanding whether they’ll make it through spam filters and to their intended recipients. This is not the case with mobile. Each mobile carrier owns its own network and has the right to control what passes through its system. Carriers typically require explicit approval of whatever you plan to send to their subscribers. Carriers have an acute interest in making sure that their hard-won paying subscribers are not bombarded by messages they do not want. So you’ll need to plan for the time and effort to get those carrier approvals before you can start sending text messages.

2. The Pipes are not Free: An email service provider may charge you to send your emails out through their system, but there’s no fundamental cost to using the Internet. Sending a text message incurs a cost that must either be paid by the sender, the consumer, or both. It’s more like postage than like email. If you’re a marketer, you probably don’t want to charge your consumers to receive your message, so you’ll wind up footing the bill. It’s only a few pennies per message, but with volume it adds up. That’s a significant constraint that you need to bear in mind and budget for.

3. The Opt-In Barrier is Higher: By now we’re all familiar with how to collect email opt-ins, and we know the specific opt-out provisions required by CAN-SPAM. There are a whole different, and more elaborate, set of opt-in/out requirements for mobile, and each carrier has a slightly different formula. It makes sense: receiving a text message is far more personal and intrusive than sending an email, so you’ll want to make sure that the consumers on your list really want to hear from you. And you’ll need to be prepared to receive opt-outs in a variety of formats. Any consumer needs to be able to opt-out by replying to your text with any sort of opt-out message. So your system needs to recognize a variety of opt-out messages coming from consumers, and these messages are not always polite!

4. You’ll Need a Short-Code: A short code is a five- or six-digit number that is your mobile “address.” That’s the number consumers will use to send messages to you, but it’s also the “return address” that you’ll use to send messages out. Procuring a short-code is an essential but time-consuming process. You’ll need to file an application that needs to be approved by the carriers or their designated representatives, and approvals take at least a few weeks, and in some cases many months.

5. You’ll Need )at least one) Partner: If all of these caveats seem prohibitively daunting, there’s one ray of light: There are companies that handle most of these details for you. Some mobile agencies do it all and handle all aspects of carrier relations, billing, marketing, and short-code procurement. Others specialize in just one aspect. Even the biggest companies need at least one of these partners to make a mobile program work. And even with a comprehensive partner, the process is never completely turnkey or hands-off. You’ll need to be involved in carefully designing your program, budgeting for messages sent and received, and mapping opt-in and opt-out procedures.

I was reminded of my early research in London during a recent return trip. And despite all the complications I’ve described above, I came away with a positive vision for the future of mobile marketing in America. In Britain as in most of Europe, it is extremely common and relatively simple for brands and consumers to communicate via mobile. Far more common than in the U.S. True, they’ve been at it a bit longer, and the nature of the mobile networks makes it inherently easier.
But the outcome is really quite remarkable. Mobile marketers in Europe can spend more time focused on marketing, and less time on the nuances and nuisances of mobile technology. We’re headed to the same place. Here in America, we’re ironing out the complications and, in due time and with the right partner, your brand can successfully navigate the nuances of mobile.