Is mobile advertising the next big cash cow? In a ‘tell-me-new-touch-point’ starved media industry, will betting big on mobile advertising generate value eventually more money? In a recent discussion with the CTO of a MNC who is doing just the same, my belief got stronger.I quote - “Yes, today most clients in
He showed me a live demo of an excellent mobile platform. Fone Mine - The power of mobile advertising. How to do targeted communication? A solution that is service provider, demographic independent. How not to annoy consumer by giving opt-in preference? Integrated m-commerce. Data generation. Rich Analysis of the data. Believe me, the possibilities are endless. All it needs is little patronage from clients. It gives creative people direct access to some very funky stuff. It allows media agencies to make money. This much more than SMS campaign plugged into presentations as 360 communication. This is 360 by itself. Imagine the sheer 'reach-potential' of the medium (if you still don't think mobile phone as medium) in India and China. A mobile advertising platform, our industry should take immediate notice. To me this is a live example of - How technology can change media dynamics? Something worth exploring.
SMS <> to 5656 is so 2007 ;-)
3 comments:
Like they say talk like consumers while talking to them. In this case, talk like the medium. Firstly, look at what we use text messaging for the most: invitation to parties, funny forwards, teaser riddles/jokes.
Retrofit your communication piece to the medium accordingly. How can you talk the language of "teaser/riddle or funny forwards" for your brand?
In US, the biggest reason for skepticism against using this medium is because incoming messages are charged. :(
But with the advent of blackberries and iphones, marketers have heaved a sigh of relief. They don't have to bother about text messages since consumers are online 24/7. So text messaging has been put aside since then.
For India, I would agree with you Roop, it would make so much sense. and the possibilities are endless.
For example, Audi's Art of the Heist campaign did an awesome job of integrating cell phones in their campaign. Consumers had to solve a case using a code that was messaged on their cell-phones. I will email you some articles and examples that I have.
I completely agree with you. The potential is unlimited in India. Clients need to understand the importance of the medium and encourage experimentation. Its more than just text messaging. I think it is important for us planners to understand the medium even better to do some really cool stuff. Check out AdModa, Admob, MGinger, AdInfuse. This companies in US have managed to develop a simple software which can change the media dynamics in India. As a planner this is what interest me more. You should try this softwares out, if you can get your hands on it. Freaking Gold.
Roop, you're spot on! I believe the key to successful mobile marketing is captured in these 10 principles
1. Giving complete control to the consumer: permissions/preferences driven interaction (only send consumers what they asked for, IFF they asked for it). Personalize what you send for the consumer "mobile context". This mobile context includes their location/device-characteristics/etc which must be used, for example, to paginate results for the display size of their mobile device or provide them with media types (video etc) that their device supports. Even something as simple as starting a text message with the NAME of the target consumer: e.g., "Hi Roop, would you like to see Ann Rynd's Fountainhead with Gary Cooper? Reply yes to book tickets". A consumer in india doesn't pay for incoming text messages. she should not have to pay PREMIUM text rates for interacting with a campaign
2. Giving complete control to the brand: right from creative canvas to managing personalized interactive multi-modal (text/voice/mobile-internet) mobile campaigns with call to actions that are completely tracked. Tweak and change the campaign as you go along and as the need arises, and not in the old school "spray and pray" model of blast mobile marketing
3. Immediacy (impulse?) and 1-1 interaction in a 1-many world: after all the mobile is a very personal interaction device and the marketing thereto should also be 1-1.
4. Letting consumers choose the medium of interaction: be it text, or voice, or mobile-internet: i.e., don't try to fit to a common denominator (text) and don't penalize consumers who have richer interaction (mobile internet) capabilities. Let consumers also switch from text to mobile internet to voice, all within the same interaction
5. Do multi-stage campaigns, where it takes successive interactions over a period of time to "convert" the consumer: after all you can't send someone just one message and hope they'll buy a house or get married!
6. Do closed loop campaigns: start with a target list and use the interactions with them to narrow down a smaller subset of the target who would have a higher propensity to "buy" the campaign message.. use results of every interaction to filter/narrow the subsequent interactions, thus dramatically increasing the yield.
7. Track the hell out of every interaction: if a consumer provides information, use that information immediately; track also every form of mobile interaction (including voice calls, text messages, and mobile internet accesses) at the granularity of the mobile consumer!
8. Build application state and history sensitivity into mobile campaigns a la CRM (a mobile consumer would feel much more engaged if the brand remembered the previous interactions they had with the consumer)
9. Keep it simple, stupid! Not only the phone screen but also the attention span of the consumer is so short that brands need to think of mobile as a first class object and not try to retrofit the complex web interactions into the mobile experience
10. the relationship between the consumer and the brand should NOT be intermediated by the campaign itself: i.e., the consumer controls all the brand messages to her, and the brand should "own the consumer relationship" (not farm this to third parties)
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