As location becomes more and more relevant for users, businesses and advertisers, I am picking up a thread here from Carlo Longino/MobHappy.com and Matt Silk/Mobile Demystified that sheds light on the subject of location via SMS, still the most ubiquitous way to reach consumers on a mobile phone.
On the value to consumers of location-based ads
Marketers are expanding their focus to include more ways to digitally and directly reach consumers, so their vendors must follow suit. It’s just smart business.
Nearly every major email service provider has announced social media integration plans in one form or another, and most have selected a mobile partner or are building messaging into their platforms.
In general, and in particular for direct marketers, mobile continues to represent tremendous opportunity. As we’ve seen with these acquisitions, the appetite for social and digital media technologies is growing.
We regularly make the point that marketers should have a multichannel strategy – one that includes email, online, mobile and social media. The more opportunities you have to reach a customer, the more opportunities you have to engage with them.
MediaPost’s Research Brief recently highlighted a survey from Ruder Finn on how Americans use the mobile internet. The post is worth a quick read and provides some insight on how people use their phones (which is helpful for crafting a mobile strategy).
You can read the full post here.
The survey, the Mobile Intent Index, showed the driving factor behind people using their mobile phones to go online is immediacy. And that people use their mobile phones as a “social connector” – with 91 percent of mobile users going online to socialize, compared to the 79 percent of traditional internet users.
See this interactive full study: Ruder-Finn’s full results here.
Over at AdWeek, Simon Vella makes some excellent points in his op-ed “Forget Apps, Text Still Reigns in Mobile.”
He notes: "Nearly every cellphone in the U.S. is capable of text messaging and because it’s used for regular personal communication, it’s always top of mind in terms of general daily use. By comparison, only 18% of all phones in the U.S. are smartphones. Further, Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones worldwide will account for just 23% of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013, hardly representing the mass market for general consumer goods and services."
By Bryce Marshall,
Chief Marketeer
Mobile marketing creates opportunities for timely and intimate consumer experiences, but is often poorly understood. And unlike online tactics like search, email, and social marketing, few brands have dollars set aside for mobile development, meaning business cases and ROI models must be cemented upfront. The good news is consumers are already mobile. Hundreds of millions of North American consumers are engaged with their mobile devices.
Many marketers are overwhelmed by the technologies and terminology that fall under "mobile." However, the foundational components of mobile marketing are straightforward, support core marketing and communications programs, and deliver clear and measurable outcomes.
Here are a few tips for making a mobile business case:
The Foundation
1. Text Messaging (SMS)
By Emilio Castellanos
There has recently been some buzz about companies getting sued for conducting non compliant or flawed SMS campaigns. In particular I am referring to the class action suits filed against Coors Light and CBS-owned Simon & Schuster.
MillerCoors LLC is being sued for running a mobile sweepstakes promotion in which it allegedly printed invalid promotional codes. Simon & Schuster is in trouble for having allegedly sent unsolicited messages during a three-year SMS campaign for the Stephen King horror novel "The Cell."
These two class action suits highlight the need for companies embarking on SMS campaigns and promotions to ensure that campaigns meet the Mobile Marketing Association's (MMA) guidelines, receive adequate legal attention, and are administered and deployed by mobile professionals using only the best mobile infrastructure available.
By Susan Marshall, MediaPost Online
iPhone apps and WAP (mobile Internet) sites, often overshadow SMS (text messaging), as sexier ways to reach mobile phone users. But SMS is fast, effective and provokes action especially in teens and young adults. In fact, a new study from Local Mobile Search says SMS advertising generates response rates two to ten times higher than Internet display ads.
"While much of the ad industry is focused on the iPhone and other smartphones because of the buzz and excitement surrounding these devices, they currently represent only 15% or 16% of total handsets in the U.S.," says the report authored by Opus Senior Analyst Greg Sterling.
By Joseph de Avila
Retailers eager to attract holiday shoppers are expanding their digital efforts to reach them this season.
Read the original article from the WSJ here.
Stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are using more text-message alerts to spread the news about sales. Online retailers like Buy.com Inc. are sending out daily messages on Twitter, a blogging site that uses short messages, to advertise the latest holiday specials. The Gap Inc., Target Corp., Sears Holdings Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. are pushing new mobile programs this year, too.
Date: June 25, 2008 9:56:09 PM EDT
Source: VentureBeat (http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/25/hispanic-mobile-media-and-advertising-...)
Author: Jake Swearingen
For companies looking to make a move into mobile advertising, it might be good to a get a few bilingual Spanish speakers on staff. While money has already been following Hispanics online for a while, with Hispanic consumer spending expected to top $1 trillion by 2010, and use of mobile phones exploding within the Hispanic market, expect more and more mobile marketing targeted at Hispanics in the coming months [...]
Emilio Castellanos is Co-Founder of
Avanti Interactive, LLC, a company dedicated to helping businesses grow by implementing mobile, online content, social media and marketing strategies that create new revenue streams and extend brands, products and services across the new and changing market ecosystem.
