The Mobile Marketing Manifesto
By Pete Lerma

This week, I decided getting you excited about mobile marketing should be my personal crusade. The refrain I seem to hear is mobile is "it " in Europe and Asia, but it's "a few years away" from hitting it big here in the States.

People working in mobile marketing circles say we're a lot closer than you might think.
I got a quick state of the union from Carrie Himelfarb-Seifer, VP of sales at Vindigo and a board member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Some facts she brought to my attention:

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Mobile Marketing's Use To Skyrocket

We've heard about the advent of mobile marketing (yawn) for years. And yeah, teens could long use short text messaging (SMS) to vote for contestants on 'American Idol'. A few cosmetics companies sent out a few hundred SMSs advertising their hair products. A synagogue recently sent Sabbath greetings to its members via SMS. Other than that, we haven't seen much of this much-hyped mobile marketing around. But you wait.
Chances are, mobile marketing will blossom, along with cherry trees, this spring. Paul Cushman, of mobile marketing consultancy M-Qube, tells me of an upcoming campaign that a major beverage maker has slated for May. As part of the campaign, this yet-unnamed company will give away more than 1 million prizes, including Xbox gaming consoles and 200,000 ringtones.

To me, this campaign is an indication that mobile marketing is about to enter the big league, until now occupied by TV, newspaper and online ads. The fact that the campaign uses ringtones could also be hinting at an advent of mobile multimedia advertising.
Up till now, most of the wireless promotions out there - they were mostly pilots and trials -- involved short-text messaging. And yes, teens use SMS a lot. But in this rich-media world, text is rather boring. Soon, however, I think, we might actually start seeing multimedia promotions, involving photos, audio and video.

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The History Channel Launches Mobile Marketing Campaign

Today’s launch of a new mobile marketing initiative for The History Channel delivers content directly to consumers’ PDAs or smartphones and incorporates quizzes with real-time results, daily history trivia, a programming schedule, "what’s on now" updates, and email opt-ins for future information about The History Channel. By incorporating a mobile Internet site via AvantGo, The History Channel hopes tp provide its audience with a more interactive, informative experience. "Horizon Interactive identified early on that a large percentage of information-seeking men between the ages of 25-54 are PDA and smartphone users, which is a similar demographic to those watching The History Channel," says Horizon Interactive Strategist Wendi Dunlap.

She said the History Channel had previously tested PDA advertising over the past few years with considerable success prompting the new initiative launched today. "We are always looking for innovative ways to reach our viewers and extend The History Channel brand. Working with Horizon Media and AvantGo on this new mobile marketing initiative enables us to directly reach the upscale, information-hungry men who are our viewers while reaching out to new and potential viewers," said Michael Mohamad, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, The History Channel.

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On advertising: Searching for the right tone

By Eric Pfanner International Herald TribuneMONDAY, MAY 2, 2005

Jean-Paul Edwards, an advertising executive in London, was riding a ski lift in the French Alps a few years ago when his mobile phone beeped to signal an incoming text message. He thought it was from his wife, so he pulled the phone out of his pocket, and, fumbling around with his gloves, dropped it in the snow.

After half an hour of searching, Edwards found the phone, only to discover that the message was actually from his mobile network, advertising a promotion. In revenge, Edwards decided to drop the service provider.

"Mobile phones are a terrible advertising tool but a great communications tool," said Edwards, head of media futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, a firm that plans ad strategies and buys media space and time.

What he meant was that traditional, in-your-face advertising doesn't work well on mobile phones, with which many users have remarkably intimate relationships. (A recent survey by the ad agency BBDO Europe showed that 22 percent of respondents in Italy and Spain admitted to answering their mobiles during sex.)

Instead of blatant SMS sales pitches, mobile users seem to prefer creative approaches that blur the boundaries between advertising, communications and entertainment.
Last summer, for instance, Gardena, a provider of gardening products, set up a giant billboard in Dortmund, Germany, with an interactive twist. By sending a text message to a number shown on the poster, which depicted a boy holding a garden hose, passers-by could activate the nozzle to squirt actual water.

Such promotions can raise brand awareness, even if they don't immediately generate sales. Because they fuel traffic on mobile networks, operators love them, too.
Still, cellphone advertising has been slow to take off. In Germany, the biggest mobile market in Europe, such advertisers spent about €40 million, or $51.7 million, last year, said Jupiter Research, less than one-tenth the amount spent on online advertising.

Yet as mobile phones become more technologically sophisticated, adding video and Internet content, advertising experts are optimistic about the prospects.
BBDO's recent survey showed that in some countries, consumers treasure their mobile phones more than their televisions. The agency, a unit of Omnicom Group, set up a new venture to explore the possibilities of mobile advertising, in partnership with an Omnicom direct-marketing unit called Proximity.

Experts say the best examples of marketing via the mobile phone, like the Gardena billboard, employ other media as well. That is not only because of consumer tastes but also because of evolving legal and regulatory restrictions on how phones can be used in advertising.
European Union rules governing privacy and e-commerce, for instance, generally require marketers to obtain the consent of phone users before sending them ads via text messages or other electronic means. But rules are sometimes implemented inconsistently at the national level.

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Kids and Their Phones

Published: March 16, 2005 (After March 23, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)A new study by NOP World indicates that 44% of US tweens and teens between the ages of 10 and 18 own a cell phone.

Mobile phone ownership penetration has increased from just 13% of 12 to 14 year-olds to fully 40%, while penetration among 15 to 17 year-olds has increased from 42% to 75%. Overall, 16 million young people ages 10 to 18 own a mobile phone.

A similar survey taken in mid-2004 by Taylor Research & Consulting Group found cell phone ownership levels among kids lower than those revealed by the NOP World study. However, the Taylor study only covered 8 to 15 year olds, while NOP's survey includes 16 to 18 year-olds. Older teens have higher mobile phone ownership levels, which brings up the average for the entire age range.

Taylor Group's data indicated that cell phone ownership was on the rise, but more kids owned or had in their room other kinds of electronics. For example, 35% had regular telephones, compared to the 21% who had mobile phones. Just over 70% had TVs in their rooms, and 81% had stereos or CD players.

NOP found that many teens are interested in phones that can act as MP3 players or digital cameras, suggesting that cell phone penetration may increase as they come to serve multiple entertainment purposes.

Taylor Group also found that girls were more likely to have cell phones than boys and were also more likely to possess regular telephones, cameras and stereos. Boys were more likely to have TVs, DVD players and video game systems.

While kids and teens are often notoriously mercurial in their brand allegiances, NOP finds that they are fairly loyal when it comes to cell phones — 77% say they have stayed with their first mobile service provider, and only 11% of respondents plan to switch providers in the next 6 months.

Interestingly, Verizon and Cingular are by far the most familiar mobile phone providers among US teens, with over 40% of respondents saying that they are aware of these companies. AT&T Wireless, which recently merged with Cingular, is well known to 20% of teens. As Ben Rogers, Vice President of NOP World Technology notes, with the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, "Cingular has a clear opportunity to catapult ahead of Verizon when it comes to brand recognition among teens and tweens." However, it is not clear how much of AT&T Wireless's name recognition will migrate over with the company to Cingular, since, after all, the "AT&T" name will disappear.

As cell phone ownership continues to increase among teens and tweens, mobile marketing will represent an excellent way for advertisers to reach this crucial age group. For more information about the mobile marketing sector, read the Mobile Marketing report, available on eMarketer's Web site.

Enpocket Java Engine - Creates richer relationships between brands and consumers

With global handset sales at 680 million in 2004, and the large majority of new phones now Java-enabled, Java applications are proving to be a popular, easy-to-use and interactive medium that give brands a permanent presence in the consumer's pocket.
Media companies, content providers and brands including Hallmark, Match.com, Time Out and Touchline Data Systems use the Java Engine to establish a presence on the mobile handset. The applications build greater affinity with consumers and enable fast access to both pre-loaded and dynamic data accessed over the mobile internet.

"Marketers are now building mobile services that take interaction and consumer control to the next level. SMS and MMS are great ways to inform and educate, but branded Java applications really entertain and enrich user experience," said Peter Larsen, CEO, Enpocket. "With the release of the Enpocket Java Engine 2.0 brands are no longer faced with long and expensive application development and testing cycles."

The Java Engine integrates with the Enpocket Marketing Engine, the world's most widely used mobile marketing software, to allow targeted Java content and relevant marketing to be transmitted to individual handsets. The Enpocket Java Engine 2.0 is ready for MIDP 2.0 and 1.0, providing stronger security features and allowing for updates to an application's core menu structure over the air.

Levi's campaign gives push to mobile marketing

Levi’s is making a further push into mobile marketing, using WAP for the first time as part of the launch of its spring 501 campaign. Mobile users will be able to preview the new Levi’s television spot on their mobiles from 7 February, a week before the ad’s official launch on 14 February. From 11 February, users can view the full television ad via a WAP website, which has been created by Lateral. The site will also offer exclusive mobile content in support of the overall campaign, including the Film of the Film and other downloads. “We want to move Levi’s further into the mobile content arena, using mobile as a pull medium,” Helene Venge, the head of digital marketing at Levi’s Europe, said. “The approach is to offer the target audience downloadable content that they can send to each other, or applications that enable their own creativity. A WAP site is a complementary communications channel and we will be looking to evolve our use of WAP over the year.”

Source: Campaign © Brand Republic