When I did my last subject on postgraduate study I have found that mobile is going to play a major role in most of the industry. Recently i’m the process of doing research about mobile marketing for my work place and I came across some wonderful insights. Here my first post about mobile marketing. I will post my other findings very soon.
“The pace at which dollars will flow into emerging channels that are efficient and accountable will continue to accelerate.Mobile is no exception”
Very true versus I noted down from an online article. The mobile reality includes three elements such as reach, engagement and measurement.
Reach – No doubt mobile has a wide reach than others. Here few facts to confirm that
Worldwide there are three billion mobile phones
Nearly 85% of the handsets are wen enabled ( In US only there are 48M active web mobile users)
Text messages are growing as highly important and attractive online marketing tool.
Engagement – Mobile phones are considered as thew most personal communication tool and the relevancy is very high.
Nearly half of the SMS users are 35+
94% of the text messages are read (opportunity lies here for marketers)
Measurement – Average response rate for mobile marketing is 15%. This is very high when compared to the direct marketing response( 1%), also an average person send at least 3.8 text message per day
In five years time most of the brands will start spending their half of their budget on mobile marketing
Mobile Internet banner campaigns are seeing higher conversion rate when compared to the fixed Internet banners.
When looking at the above its clear the online marketers need to think about implementing the mobile marketing strategy now onwards. The mobile mechanisms that marketers can target are
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SMS/Text Messaging
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WAP
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Downloadable applications
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Video(Podcasting)
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IVR
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Mobile Email
Where does mobile fit?
I would also like to outline other important opportunity in the US market. In year 2009 there will be 15Million mobile TV users are predicted in USA. You can read the detailed report here
Then what are the opportunity criteria for Mobile Marketing?
Simple – Mobile campaigns need to be simple and easy to understand – Don’t make people to think
Relevant – Relevancy drives engagement, without engagement there is not consumer experience
Integrated – Today mobile works best when it’s a tie-in with a larger campaign or other media. It’s not stand alone.
Viral – Mobile phones, Messaging in particular, is a peer to peer proposition,make content fun and interesting
Scalable – Mobile campaign fundamentals need to exist whether you are talking to one person or one million.
Measurable – Engagement and other goals are highly measurable given the direct response nature of the medium.
So its time for marketers to think about mobile marketing and they have to formulate suitable strategies in order to make use the mobile penetration. According to Fortune Brand 1000 surveys the findings showed
1- One third of the brands surveyed are actively engaged in mobile marketing
2 – out of the main four mechanism text messaging and Wap are used widely
3 – Mechanisms will come more sophisticated overtime
4 – A variety of objectives can be served overtime.
5- Most of the brands are not highly confident in their own mobile strategies.
According to Mobile Marketing Association Adidas in the good example for their effective mobile marketing strategies
A multi-faceted mobile campaign, Adidas empowered consumers to personalize digital content with voices of NBA Stars Kevin Garnett,TIM Duncan, Tracy McGrady among others and also through print, outdoor and TV advertising consumers were invited to text in and receive motivational calls and text messages back from the Adidas basketball legends.
The other best example would be Presidential candidate Barack Obama, he embraces mobile and wins marketer of the year.
So I can see a healthy trend in the growth of mobile and the strategic integration is critical to success and ROI. There are more insight can be taken form Mobile Marketing Association web site.
Ragulan Tharmakulasingam 