Mobile Marketing Comes to North America

By Kelly Shermachhttp://www.crmbuyer.com/ Part of the ECT News Network

By requiring an opt-in from consumers before sending advertising to their cell phones, the company builds a unique subscriber base for each product. Macy's, for instance, can choose to sponsor messages only to women, aged 18 to 35, who earn more than US$40,000 annually and live within 25 miles of a Macy's store.

Interactive marketing has come a long way. In 2005 it will appear more often not only on the big screen -- the computer screen, that is -- but on the little screen of the mobile phone as well. With a cell phone the constant companion to more than 170 million Americans, there's a lot of potential.

A marketing phenomenon that already has achieved great popularity in Europe and South Africa is now catching on with North American marketers, who see a benefit in reaching customers when they're out spending money.

Overall, digital media and technology enable marketers to better target potential customers. And it often registers responses better than traditional marketing efforts, pleasing company executives and shareholders who want to see accountability for every dollar spent on a brand.

Moving Targets
According to soon-to-be-released research from the CMO Council and the Promotion Marketing Association -- titled "Digital Directions: How Technology Is Touching and Transforming Promotions" -- 19.8 percent of marketers across industries have used or are considering using short message service (SMS).

"Mobile marketing is quickly becoming the most direct, most interactive, widest-reaching and fastest-growing marketing medium in the world," said Barrie Arnold, vice president of strategy and business development for SMS Media Group of Aliso Viejo, Calif.

SMS Media Group drops sponsorship or advertising onto permission-based SMS content like daily horoscopes or winning lottery number alerts. It also conducts straight mobile marketing campaigns. By requiring an opt-in from consumers before sending advertising to their cell phones, the company builds a unique subscriber base for each product. Macy's, for instance, can choose to sponsor messages only to women, aged 18 to 35, who earn more than $40,000 annually and live within 25 miles of a Macy's store.

There are countless ways to segment a customer group. A chemical company might notify its farming customers when to spray their crops according to the climate and weather of particular geographical pockets, and afterward, remind them to order more product. A pharmacy can send SMS messages to senior citizens when they need to refill their prescriptions. CNET already notifies consumers when the electronic items they want drop in price.
Younger Consumers
"It's lifestyle marketing triggered by an event," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

SMS marketing inexpensively notifies customers of a promotion when they're out and about, spending money, "not when they get back to their houses and ... and turn on their computer and log into their e-mail," he said.
That said, the messages must be relevant or they won't elicit a reponse, both Neale-May and Arnold said. Relevancy is especially important in the United States, where recipients pay 5 cents or 10 cents for each text message. In other parts of the world, service contracts tend not to operate on a per-message basis.
More than 30 billion text messages were sent in the United States in 2004, Arnold said, and most originated with 12- to 34-year-olds who influence or account for more than $800 billion in annual spending.

Aggregated data from eMarketer indicates that younger wireless users are more receptive to mobile advertising than those ages 35 and up. Respondents surveyed for the "Digital Directions" study expected college students to respond most readily (79.7 percent), followed by teenagers (75.2 percent), males 18-34 (62.2 percent) and youth (58.1 percent).
"Their whole social fabric is driven by their mobile connections," Neale-May said of young consumers.

Investing in Mobile Marketing
"Clients buying media in our mobile media network are experiencing 4 percent or better response rates," said Tom Burgess, CEO of Third Screen Media of Waltham, Mass., a mobile advertising vendor.

Dunkin' Donuts (which is not a Third Screen Media client) achieved a 4 percent response to a mobile coupon it distributed to young adults in Boston, for example. Short codes and similar solutions give marketers a way to track success.

In late February, the Mobile Marketing Association established committees to compile return-on-investment (ROI) metrics and best practices for mobile CRM . The association said in a statement that by the end of the year it should have the information on which to base guidelines for mobile marketing campaigns.

SMS Media's Arnold admitted that mobile marketing can be as difficult to measure as traditional media advertising, unless marketers direct message recipients to a specific URL or code a direct-response message or provide people with vanity phone numbers to call. There is technology to do this, but its application costs money.

The average Third Screen Media client has budgeted between $25,000 and $250,000 for mobile marketing this year, reported Burgess. But influencing consumers never comes without a cost.

FCC Lists Sites that Spam

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published a list of Websites that transmit unwanted email and text messages to wireless phones. The Websites have 30 days to stop transmitting unwanted emails and text messages, unless the recipient has given approval to the Website. Under anti-spam legislation signed by President Bush, senders of unwanted email and text messages could be fined up to $11,000 per violation.

It's easy to throw some banner ads up on a Web site to at least try and offset costs, but it's a tall order on a mobile screen. Nevertheless, one well-known content brand is going to start offering free mobile content supported by ads. New Media Age reports that The Financial Times is going to launch an ad-supported version of its mobile Java service, for which it currently charges subscription fees of $5, 5 euros or 4 pounds per month, initially with a brand-sponsored version of the software.

The head of FT's mobile services says advertisers are looking for integrated print and online campaigns, and the company can now bring mobile into the mix. The FT Java software is from Swedish developer Mediabricks, which supports a similar application, also ad-supported, from CNN.While many mobile content providers struggle to find the right balance on pricing, the FT and CNN deals do suggest that it's possible to create ad-supported mobile content that is non-intrusive and acceptable -- something many mobile ads thus far haven't been. It remains to be seen how effective these types of sponsorships are, though, both for users and for advertisers.

Source: The Feature

Where Is Mobile Marketing Headed?



A new eMarketer report explores three possible scenarios for the growth of wireless advertising and marketing over the next five years.



A recent BusinessWeek article quoted several advertising agencies as saying that 2005 will be the breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending set to spike from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." This may sound suspiciously like the hype bestowed on online advertising in the 1990s. But remember, the Internet has become an integral element in marketing and sales strategies for most companies.



There are technological and privacy hurdles to be surmounted, and mobile marketing is not likely to become the instant cash cow agencies hope, but like online marketing, it is here to stay. Wireless could be the next frontier.



To answer the question of what types of businesses will flourish in this new environment, eMarketer's new report, Mobile Marketing and M-Commerce, puts together three potential scenarios that plot spending growth for wireless advertising and marketing over the next five years. Each starts with the supposition that in percentage terms, wireless advertising is at roughly the same level relative to interactive advertising that online advertising was in relation to traditional ad spending in the mid-to-late 1990s.



eMarketer Article Here

Report: Consumers Won't Stand For Wireless Spam



A new white paper released Monday concludes that traditional "push" marketing tactics won't work on cell phones and other mobile devices. Instead, said the report, marketers should focus on reaching consumers on their wireless devices through opt-in, location-based content-sponsorships.



"Protecting consumer privacy is paramount to the evolution of the medium," said Bill Carmody, chief marketing officer of Seismicom, the San Francisco-based brand marketing firm that wrote the report. "Push marketing is less and less effective," he said, adding that spam and spyware have heightened consumers' concerns about receiving ads on mobile phones and other personal wireless devices.



In the white paper, Carmody noted the importance of dispelling the "Starbucks myth," which holds that a person walking a short distance from a Starbucks would trigger an automated SMS text message to their phone offering discounts or coupons for Starbucks coffee.



Carmody said marketers simply will not send users unsolicited text messages--especially because text messages cost money to send and receive. He said that not only would consumer backlash to such a tactic be great enough to outweigh any increased sales from this kind of promotion, but federal regulations issued under Can-Spam outlaw sending consumers unsolicited messages on mobile devices.



But, he said, a marketer such as Starbucks is very likely to invest in an opt-in service that makes it easier for consumers to locate the nearest store. "The most powerful thing wireless adds is location-based services," said Carmody, adding that opt-in, content-based sponsorships that leverage location services are the future of wireless marketing.



For example, Seismicom created a free wireless information portal that users could opt-in to for the Vans Warped Tour--a nationwide concert series that caters to the punk rock/alternative crowd--for its client Samsung, which was trying to promote its distribution partnership with Cingular Wireless. The information portal contained branding for both Samsung and Cingular, but largely focused on delivering content such as information on participating bands, and past concerts in the series. Carmody said the campaign received positive feedback from a demographic segment that notoriously hates being marketed to.



Carmody also mentioned enhanced wireless applications such as Dodgeball, which sends text messages to a pre-registered group of friends in a network. He said the idea is essentially "wireless Friendster," because it takes the idea of social networking and enhances it through location services and the possibility of on-demand meetings.



Dodgeball allows members to send messages to their pre-registered list of friends (and their friends' friends) by simply sending a time and a location. The message "Roy's Restaurant at 6 PM" would locate any friends in a 10-block radius, sending a personalized message such as "Bill is at Roy's Restaurant. You know him through Kathleen."



Carmody said applications like Dodgeball and content sponsorships are significant because successful wireless marketing will follow the similar model of opt-in, location-based services. He said that "customer relationship management" will have to become "the customer manages the relationship," to accommodate today's take-charge consumers.

Levi’s embarks on spring WAP campaign



Clothing firm Levi's Europe is continuing its digital marketing push with a new campaign promoting its 501 brand via WAP mobile phones.

From 7 February, mobile users will be able to view an exclusive preview of the new Levi's commercial via WAP before it airs on TV on 14 February.

The full WAP site launches 11 February, providing behind the scenes footage and wallpapers.

Meanwhile, the spring 501 campaign will launch on eu.levi.com from 11 February, including the full length advert, alongside background information and downloads.

In addition, an online teaser campaign will run on MSN from the 11 February in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. Showing a snippet of the commercial TVC, it aims to drive users to eu.levi.com to view the full version.

Helene Venge, head of digital marketing Levi's Europe, said: "In line with our overall consumer intimacy and cross-channel strategy, we want to move Levi's further into the mobile content arena, using mobile as a pull medium."

The new campaign follows a recent redesign of the Levi’s Europe website, including a new “Girls Only” section, updated fortnightly. In addition, a “Featured Jeans” section allows users to view jean styles in 360 degrees on a virtual model, and get in-depth information about each style.

The site was developed by Lateral, Levi's European digital communications agency.

Mobile games to 'tempt women'



Mobile gaming is set to become big business in the next year and the industry is hoping it will attract a different breed of gamers, women.



Aleks Krotoski gets 'very excited' about games

While the games industry is churning out better, brighter games, mobile makers are coming out with more colour-screened handsets on which to play them.



Both sides of the industry are hoping mobiles will drive more women to gaming because they are easy to use.



But games makers still have to break some of the stereotypical ideas about which games will appeal to men and women, say experts.



Better and brighter?



Industry analysts suggest mobile gaming in the UK will be worth more than £50 million in 2003, with that figure rising to more than £211 million by 2006.



With about 75% of the UK population owning a mobile, it is a big market to capture, says Julian Bright of Total Telecom magazine.



"Mobile games providers have access to a huge potential user base of both sexes, but so far there's still only a small proportion of women gamers," he told BBC News Online.



More -> BBC Online