February 9, 2006
Build it and they wont come, market it and they will
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mike Baker, CEO and President of Enpocket salutes the achievements that content owners have made in 2005 but points to the key component many have yet to master: how to market mobile entertainment services most effectively…
With most major movie studios, record labels and media companies launching mobile media offerings in 2005, the great content build out is in full swing. In sharp contrast, the era of mobile marketing has just begun as brands come to grips with the sobering fact that most consumers are completely unaware of content designed specifically for them.
The “build it and they will come” mentality is a risky way for media companies to attack the mobile market. Content buried in operator decks or residing off-portal will rarely, if ever, be discovered by a mass-market audience. Sub-standard search capabilities compound the problem and make the discovery process even more tricky.
The most successful purveyors of mobile entertainment are applying traditional consumer marketing discipline to the launch and mid-life product management of their offerings. But with an important twist: the mobile channel itself is the primary marketing vehicle. As we learned with the emergence of the Internet, in-medium interactive advertising is powerful and effective. There is increasing evidence that in-medium marketing is also the best way to tackle the task of creating awareness and educating consumers in the increasingly complex world of mobile.
Here’s an update on what’s “moving the needle” in mobile marketing:
1 - The advent of rich media marketing
The rich creative palette offered by MMS can delight consumers and deliver powerful branding messages. But it also is proving to be highly effective in driving response and mobile content purchase activity. For example, Vodafone uses audio, video and animation within MMS messages on a daily basis to provide special offers and previews of actual content, direct toward targeted consumer segments. The results have been dramatic.
For a recent Full Track Music Download promotion targeted customers doubled their downloading activity during the campaign period. The campaign presented an audio edit of three contrasting music tracks together with slickly animated sequences demonstrating how the service can be used anytime, anywhere. Recipients then clicked on a hot link to go directly to the content.
Obviously for operators this makes perfect sense, as they own the channel. But with bulk MMS costs coming down brands are now turning to the medium. Samsung recently promoted the ‘skipping stone’ mobile game to its download club via MMS.
2 - Harnessing the power of data to drive program returns
Perhaps the biggest challenge to effective mobile entertainment marketing is delivering consistently relevant messages to consumers. In this regard, the power of the medium – its ability to deliver an advertising impression to an individual at a given time and place – is also its greatness pitfall. Irrelevant messages fail to generate sales and can lead to a consumer to reject a brand.
This is where predictive analytics come in. Leading operators and media companies are unleashing the power of their consumer data by applying “marketing science” systems and analysis to deliver the right message to the right consumer at the right time. Particularly effective are data models integrated with campaign management systems that enable rules-based mobile marketing to optimize revenue on an ongoing basis.
3- Contextual display advertising
The other significant development in mobile marketing is the emergence of mobile internet banner ads to drive content sales. Like e-commerce, sellers of mobile content have discovered that WAP page views represent very effective targeted advertising inventory (consumers who browse on their phones are much more likely to click on mobile content offers). One of the world’s largest mobile game publishers is successfully using mobile banner ads served across a number of third-party WAP sites to drive traffic to the “buying page” of operators’ portals featuring its games. Click rates are between 5-10% and conversion rates of 3%, far higher than any other form of response marketing.
Pulling it all together
It’s time to get serious about marketing your mobile content. When putting together your product marketing plan, think relevance, reach, rich experience, response, revenue. It’s all about making discovery easier and getting the content they love into consumers hands. To make mobile entertainment a bigger industry, we have to make it accessible to everyone – let 2006 be the year when the industry truly learns how to market itself to the masses.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Build it and they wont come, market it and they will
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mike Baker, CEO and President of Enpocket salutes the achievements that content owners have made in 2005 but points to the key component many have yet to master: how to market mobile entertainment services most effectively…
With most major movie studios, record labels and media companies launching mobile media offerings in 2005, the great content build out is in full swing. In sharp contrast, the era of mobile marketing has just begun as brands come to grips with the sobering fact that most consumers are completely unaware of content designed specifically for them.
The “build it and they will come” mentality is a risky way for media companies to attack the mobile market. Content buried in operator decks or residing off-portal will rarely, if ever, be discovered by a mass-market audience. Sub-standard search capabilities compound the problem and make the discovery process even more tricky.
The most successful purveyors of mobile entertainment are applying traditional consumer marketing discipline to the launch and mid-life product management of their offerings. But with an important twist: the mobile channel itself is the primary marketing vehicle. As we learned with the emergence of the Internet, in-medium interactive advertising is powerful and effective. There is increasing evidence that in-medium marketing is also the best way to tackle the task of creating awareness and educating consumers in the increasingly complex world of mobile.
Here’s an update on what’s “moving the needle” in mobile marketing:
1 - The advent of rich media marketing
The rich creative palette offered by MMS can delight consumers and deliver powerful branding messages. But it also is proving to be highly effective in driving response and mobile content purchase activity. For example, Vodafone uses audio, video and animation within MMS messages on a daily basis to provide special offers and previews of actual content, direct toward targeted consumer segments. The results have been dramatic.
For a recent Full Track Music Download promotion targeted customers doubled their downloading activity during the campaign period. The campaign presented an audio edit of three contrasting music tracks together with slickly animated sequences demonstrating how the service can be used anytime, anywhere. Recipients then clicked on a hot link to go directly to the content.
Obviously for operators this makes perfect sense, as they own the channel. But with bulk MMS costs coming down brands are now turning to the medium. Samsung recently promoted the ‘skipping stone’ mobile game to its download club via MMS.
2 - Harnessing the power of data to drive program returns
Perhaps the biggest challenge to effective mobile entertainment marketing is delivering consistently relevant messages to consumers. In this regard, the power of the medium – its ability to deliver an advertising impression to an individual at a given time and place – is also its greatness pitfall. Irrelevant messages fail to generate sales and can lead to a consumer to reject a brand.
This is where predictive analytics come in. Leading operators and media companies are unleashing the power of their consumer data by applying “marketing science” systems and analysis to deliver the right message to the right consumer at the right time. Particularly effective are data models integrated with campaign management systems that enable rules-based mobile marketing to optimize revenue on an ongoing basis.
3- Contextual display advertising
The other significant development in mobile marketing is the emergence of mobile internet banner ads to drive content sales. Like e-commerce, sellers of mobile content have discovered that WAP page views represent very effective targeted advertising inventory (consumers who browse on their phones are much more likely to click on mobile content offers). One of the world’s largest mobile game publishers is successfully using mobile banner ads served across a number of third-party WAP sites to drive traffic to the “buying page” of operators’ portals featuring its games. Click rates are between 5-10% and conversion rates of 3%, far higher than any other form of response marketing.
Pulling it all together
It’s time to get serious about marketing your mobile content. When putting together your product marketing plan, think relevance, reach, rich experience, response, revenue. It’s all about making discovery easier and getting the content they love into consumers hands. To make mobile entertainment a bigger industry, we have to make it accessible to everyone – let 2006 be the year when the industry truly learns how to market itself to the masses.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
