Targeting a Specific <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Demographic
By Laura Marriott | April 5, 2007
ClickZ

To View the Direct Article, Please Click HERE.

Marketing 101 dictates you position your product or service in a manner that attracts or sells to your target consumer.

It's pretty simple. An age-old rule that's been successfully applied by such brand marketers as Unilever, House of Blues, Toyota, and Playboy. This means, of course, you must know your customers. Their age, gender, purchase behavior, what value proposition resonates with each subsegment, and so on. All things we marketers know.

Similarly, mobile and mobile products and services have the same consideration. The old adage holds true: know your customer.

One theme emerging from last week's CTIA show in Orlando was diversity, the differences between ethnic group consumption of mobile products and services, particularly content services. Mobile service providers are tuned in to who's using services and how to effectively market these services to the appropriate consumer segments. In a December 2006 In-Stat study, several areas in which African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics have a powerful effect on carriers are identified, particularly when it comes to adopting value-added services.

In-Stat found ethnic groups provided 20 percent more revenue to carriers for certain applications than general population numbers would suggest. Other points made in the study include:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

• Hispanic respondents have the highest average monthly spending and usage minutes.
• Nonwhite respondents are less loyal to mobile carriers than white respondents and plan to spend more on future handsets and services.
• Asians are most likely to use mobile video applications.

Regarding Ring Tones
Telephia recently released statistics about rap/hip-hop and soul/R&B U.S. ring tones in Q4 06. The largest consumers by revenue are African Americans, at 33 and 32 percent, respectively. U.S. Hispanics are the highest consumers, again by revenue, of alternative/punk at 17 percent and 9 percent.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the creation of an Urban Special Interest Group (USIG) at CTIA. The group's charter is to foster awareness and adoption of urban-oriented mobile content by creating networking, education, and policy opportunities among urban content owners, mobile service providers, technologists, vendors, and strategic partners.

Chaired by Boost Mobile's Christopher Jones and Real Hip Hop's John Huffman IV, the USIG's initial focus will be to create a collaborative environment where urban content providers, service providers, and brands can find meaningful ways to develop synergistic business and community opportunities. Integral to continued success is broadening catalog diversity for this segment, as well as increasing opportunities for urban artists in the ever-growing mobile content ecosystem.

Jones and Huffman will initially focus on identifying the urban community's needs and the relationship and educational needs of the carrier community and all ecosystem participants in urban development and content opportunities. We expect great things from this team.

FlirtPix
I also came across a fun application at the show that caters to a different segment: the single mobile user. The app is FunMobility's FlirtPix. As CEO Adam Lavine told me, "FlirtPix is designed to be like SMS flirting, except all visual."

Who wouldn't like that? Lavine gave me a demo, showing me how a mobile user can browse pictures individuals send to the service, tagging each as "hot" or "skip." Every hot rating adds to an individual's total hotness factor. The application also allows you to upload photos via MMS and be entered into different categories (Girlfriend Material, Check Me Out, Boyfriend Material, etc). Profiles can anonymously contain such information as age, location, and zodiac sign. When you find someone interesting, you can "wink" at them or send a private message. Sounds a little like the online dating, doesn't it? Definitely one of the most fun applications I saw last week.

Women in Wireless
Finally, though not geared toward a broad consumer audience, this is a callout to female executives in mobile marketing and media. The MMA has launched a new initiative, Women in Wireless, to establish a forum for female industry leaders in the mobile media community. Its mission is to increase industry awareness around the success of female executives in the mobile space. If your company is an MMA member and you're interested in participating in women-focused initiatives, please contact the MMA.

Mobile advertising, but to whom?
By Adrian Kelly, Head of Customer Intelligence Management, LogicaCMG/Acision

The much talked about ad-funded virtual mobile operator, Blyk, launched this month on <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Orange’s network in the UK. It is promising to offer UK consumers free or reduced mobile tariffs in exchange for consent for targeted advertising.

Understandably, everyone is getting quite excited at the prospect of this first full market trial of mobile advertising.  However Blyk has two major challenges to overcome, and its success or failure will reflect on advertising funded business strategies as a whole. 

The first challenge is a classic chicken and egg situation. Blyk needs to attract consumers to a free service, but at the same time needs to get advertisers onboard in order to pay for it. But which comes first? Who will fund the consumers until the advertisers start paying and how will Blyk convince brands to spend money until there is an established and sizable audience?

Secondly and more fundamental, as a virtual operator – hiring space on Orange’s network – Blyk is likely to be getting access to only a fraction of the real-time behavioural information that an operator can pull from its systems using powerful customer intelligence. In fact, not even Orange are exploiting the full potential of the available information yet. Consequently, Blyk will have to rely on more traditional CRM and historical activity-based marketing segmentation.

Mobile advertising presents an appealing and unique opportunity for brands to reach potential customers.  The status that the mobile phone has achieved as the ever-present, trusted and most importantly most personal device means that you can’t get much closer to a consumer than appearing on the little screen of their phone.  Additionally, operators can offer something very unique in addition to just the ability to deliver general advertising messages, because by unlocking the true potential of the ‘live’ behavioural information available within their systems, this will uncover more valuable and timely information on consumer habits and behaviours than even the much-heralded Google.

Using the latest generation of Customer Intelligence Management tools operators can know when someone sends an MMS, what type of multimedia it was, who it went to, what application-to-person services are used (horoscopes, TV show information), and what TV shows they interact with through voting and content applications.  With mobile internet becoming an increasingly real phenomena they also have access to much more web browsing information than a search engine can record – wherever the consumer goes online on the mobile, the operator can know about it using web analytics.

This information is an advertisers dream, offering opportunities for precise targeting more akin to those from the media world, where over 100 different customer segments are typical, than the 10 or so demographic based segments that have been the norm in the mobile world up until now.

Launching a serious mobile advertising offering without attempting to take segmentation to this next level, making use of all the information available seems like a waste. 

Blyk is clearly pushing mobile advertising more comprehensively than ever before and all eyes will be eagerly watching. But without the ability to offer intelligent real-time behaviour based segmentation the jury is out on whether Blyk will be able to break out of the standard approach of database marketing and really offer advertisers the full targeting potential of the mobile channel.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Hottest Startups
By Nick Denton

To View Direct Article, Click HERE.

Submitted to the MMA by AdMob

ValleyWag Article (April 9, 2007)

In two threads -- one on Linked In, the other on Venture Beat -- commenters are nominating the hottest startups of Silicon Valley. We totted up the mentions on both threads. Facebook, the college social network, scores highest; with Admob, the mobile ad network, following up. Warning: we ignored obvious self-promotion, but those Valley hustlers are cunning; and we have to doubt the wisdom of any crowd that determines Linden Lab's Second Life to be one of the 10 most promising new ventures. In the comments: what do you think? Which companies least deserve to be thought of as "hot"? (We particularly liked this line from one of the Venture Beat pundits: "Digg is as hot as two pandabear-looking humanoids dryhumping each other in an empty casino in Second Life while chatting on Meebo. Get real.") .<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Mobile Messaging, the next generation

By Jay Seaton
Chief Marketing Officer
Airwide Solutions

Next-generation mobile messaging networks are evolving much as the Internet has already transformed into Web 2.0.

The Internet became a shared user community when faster throughput and broader hardware and software interoperability empowered users so they weren’t just recipients of sometimes static information housed on a Web site. Personal blogs, wikis and podcasts have spawned a new generation of Internet voices accessible to audiences of millions.

This dynamic is similar to mobile messaging’s current transformation. More powerful, protocol agnostic networks with more reliable and advanced hardware and software is creating new revenue opportunities for operators. They can offer new services that give subscribers more control over messaging options.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

What is Bluetooth Marketing?

Zalim Nastaev
TeriMobile, Head of Marketing Department

As another innovative way to complement traditional marketing techniques along came Bluetooth marketing. This new concept has been in practice for not so long, and needs to get more attention from the consumers and marketers to start evolving in more or less significant scales.

We aim in this brief article to disclose the basic features and trends of Bluetooth technology as a marketing communication tool, so the consumers should be made aware of the technology, and improve their thinking of it, or make it even more negative, if you like.

The Rise of Bluetooth

Bluetooth appeared as a result of the work of a development group consisting of the representatives of several telecom giants: Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia. These companies combined their resources to create a unified technology for wireless connection of mobile devices. Some time later the group working on the project (The Bluetooth Special Interest Group – the Bluetooth SIG) expanded, companies like 3COM/Palm, Axis Communication, Motorola, Compaq, Dell, Qualcomm, Lucent Technologies, UK Limited, Xircom entering the group. Today, the group combines the efforts of as many as over 4000 companies working on the development of a free and open specification of Bluetooth. This unified work has created the main advantage for Bluetooth – it is now supported by most of the mobile devices that are produced nowadays. Another advantage when compared to, say, IR signal, is that the users can exchange data through radio waves without setting a direct visible contact.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Today, penetration of Bluetooth into mobile phones in EU, for example, is at a rate of 35% – 42%, while up to 2008 it is expected to rise as high as 80%. 2006 was the year that Bluetooth Penetration reached the One Billion mark. IDC forecasts that by 2007 more than 433 million Bluetooth devices will ship worldwide, which is an estimated market penetration of 74 percent. Bluetooth Location-based media distribution also took a major step forward.

The Rise of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Marketing

In that early period of initial development of the technology nobody would have thought of using Bluetooth as a marketing tool. Traditional media were striving and dominating the marketing communications, while various viral campaigns were just taking their first steps. However mobile technology was taking a rapid growth and along came agencies offering mobile as an alternative media to TV, radio and print. The growth was so fast that the penetration level of mobile channel has exceeded the Internet. Thus, the advantage that the mobile advertisers could use was the reach to the end consumers. But the major advantage was, of course, the targeting opportunities – the personal nature of the mobile devices became a grand, long-awaited opportunity to develop personalized communication programmes, and the two-way nature of mobile channel gave the opportunity to create the interactive communications, where the response of the communication target is valued even higher than the messages originated by the advertisers.

Some opponents would argue that the mobile marketing is just another threat of spamming – none can be assured that the companies would not start sending out messages of no interest to every single mobile user who has no interest in their services. Do they make sense? On the first glance, this threat is possible. However, let’s look at this problem from a company’s viewpoint. None knows how much time and how many efforts brands allocate to create a positive image with the customers. And everybody knows that this image can be spoilt in just one minute - just a trifle, small mistake, and the rumours go viral. Next day you have to start all over again. The brands do realize the danger of delivering messages to mobile users without any system. The mobile marketing players have learned the lessons of its elder brother – Internet and email. The Mobile Marketing Association and a number of other bodies were established to consolidate the mobile industry players. The latter are in close contact with each other, discussing the issues arising during their activities. This consolidation and collaboration has changed the traditional way we look at the industries: and this way has the name – mobile players are working within the so called ecosystem, where technology and content providers, brands and agencies, aggregators and operators work in close collaboration to stimulate the growth of the industry.

To read the entire article, please click HERE.

Finding Mobile Success
By Dan Flanegan, President, Soapbox <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile

As someone who has been in the mobile marketing space for the past four years and has launched and managed multiple campaigns I am continuously asked "What do you consider a successful campaign?".  In most cases the individual or company posing the question is looking for some hard number, a response rate, a number of sent messages or registered users.  These can all be important metrics, however, success presents itself in the least expected and most interesting of ways.

While working with a high profile client in the hospitality sector this year we experienced one of these success stories that will impact our future mobile campaigns and how we continue to define success.  In short, our goal was to generate response across multiple ad placements in major magazines around the country with a mobile text (sms) based call to action.  The overall results of the campaign were successful but not spectacular.  However, the devil turned out to be in the details.

What was most interesting is where we saw a majority of those responses.  Since we had tagged each magazine with a unique mobile "keyword" call to action, we could track back each response to the exact magazine that had generated it. Looking at that data, we noticed in real-time that across all the placements in the campaign an overwhelming response was coming from in-flight magazines.  Yup, those in flight only publications that tout the best vacation destinations, restaurant reviews, the latest gadgets and a guide to in-flight entertainment seemed to be the right fit for a mobile phone based call to action.

Why?  A number of possibilities ranging from having a captive audience, the ability to author a response while in the air and send it after landing, the tech savvy nature of the airline commuter,  and most importantly a means of response that was immediate and did not require using one's voice, avoiding the cold stare from a flight attendant.

In the end, the client learned something about the effectiveness of mobile and their print ad spend, and we learned that reading and responding to ads while trapped in a crammed 737 might be a perfect fit for the mobile phone as an always on, always connected means of interaction.

Do I consider that a success?  You bet I do!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Getting Started in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Marketing

By Laura Marriott | March 8, 2007 | ClickZ

To View Direct Article, please click HERE.

The mobile channel is made for consumer engagement. It's immediate, intimate, and everywhere. Although we've already discussed how to get started in mobile, it remains the number one question I'm asked by people looking to add mobile to their marketing initiatives. How do I start? What's the opportunity?

At Mobile Advertising USA conference in New York this week, keynote speaker Tom Daly from Coca-Cola shared case studies from France, Germany, the U.K., and Mexico. He discussed the objectives for each campaign, initial goals and brand relative to the market, and how mobile was leveraged to create an experience for consumers. The ease of interaction with the campaign to drive consumer volume was key to the campaigns' success. As Daly cautioned, what works in one market may not apply to all markets. Objectives, mobile data penetration, and brand goals all vary. The goal is to test, learn, and share best practices across the brand.

Judith Ricker of Harris Interactive suggested that marketers should "use marketing communications to a build bond with consumer integrated across media in order to succeed." The goal is to connect with the consumer cognition, emotionally, inspirationally, and behaviorally.

These are all things we know and have heard before in regard to this channel. How do we get started?

Engage Clients With Mobile

I spent some time with Kristen Fox, formerly of ESPN, now VP of professional services at Soapbox Mobile, to discuss how to engage their clients with the mobile channel. What works? What doesn't? Fox has a particularly interesting perspective, given she's been on both the buy and sell sides of the industry. According to Fox, the steps to engage include:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

1.       Develop strategic goals and objectives for the campaign:

o        What's the target demographic?

o        What's the brand trying to achieve: Target a new market? Product launch? Something else?

o        What are the success metrics?

2.       Once goals are established, determine the creative approach. The key is to first focus on creative, not technology. Allow the creative to guide the technology utilization, not the other way around:

o        The creative approach is driven, in part, by understanding the demographic, objectives, and the brand's voice behind the campaign. As Fox put it, the brand exchange is a community exchange with the consumer.

o        What approach will speak to the consumer?

3.       Apply the platform to the campaign. The next step is to work with your partner to focus on the campaign variables based on customer requests and requirements.

Mobile provides an opportunity for a brand to have a one-to-one conversation with the consumer. It's a live, personal experience. What's the reaction to Soapbox's approach been with marketers? According to Fox, brand response has been positive because the message and approach are familiar to marketers. It doesn't require them to learn mobile technology and terminology right out of the gate. It's an approach that sets the stage for the future.

Let the Client Own the Short Code
Fox says the most interesting change in moving from the buy side to the sell side is a greater understanding of mobile's benefits and more transparency around how it works. She believe it's important for the client to have ownership and control over their short code rather than relinquish it to a mobile marketing partner. A brand builds equity in its short code every time it's utilized. If that brand changes vendors, contractual agreements may cause the short code to be tied to the old vendor for a fixed duration. This could hinder the brand's ability to manage initiatives. This is particularly a cause for concern when it comes to vanity codes.

Courtney Acuff, from Denuo, agrees it's important for the brand team, client, and agency to understand how a short code benefits them, and how it can be integrated, before they can own and control it.

Learning From Coca-Cola
Educating for brand clients is key, says R/GA's Richard Ting. Clients generally come from a base of online expertise that's very different from mobile, and understanding the differences within the process with something as simple as securing a short code or mobile Web site has been a learning process.

Some of Coca-Cola's conclusions from its experiences with the mobile channel:

• Feed lessons into future activities.
• Innovate through approach and execution.
• The message is more important than the medium (relevance).
• Think in an integrated way.
• Concept to a use case.
• Follow the rules!

Remember, there are 2.2 billion mobile users worldwide, twice the number of those using the Internet. According to Harris Interactive's Joseph Porus, mobile is the most personal device in history. Mobile is a reflection of who we are, and handset churn allows a 24-month renewable self-image cycle. Mobile will become the new remote control for our lives.

Hot Topics From 3GSM
By Laura Marriott | February 22, 2007 | ClickZ

To View Direct Article, please click HERE.

Face it: Although not yet a mainstream channel, mobile advertising is all the rage. Premium text messaging generates the lion's share of mobile marketing revenues, but it's not the wireless channel getting coverage on the front page of every major periodical worldwide today. In publications such as "The International Herald Tribune" and "The Boston Globe," mobile advertising is hot.

At the world's largest wireless conference last week in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Barcelona, 3GSM, we heard Vodafone Group's Arun Sarin speak about the emerging trend of mobile advertising and the importance of mobile advertising guidelines to ensure rapid deployment. In addition, Yahoo launched its display advertising initiative in 19 countries, which enables advertisers to reach consumers using the Yahoo Mobile Web home page. JumpTap and Openwave also announced a contextual advertising delivery platform that can deliver relevant and contextual advertisements to end users.

These are just three of the many announcements at 3GSM. Mobile advertising has enormous potential to become the engagement-based ad model for all marketer types. Add relevancy (context), and mobile may be the biggest medium ever.

When I talk to ClickZ's editors about the feedback this column receives, we discuss the need to educate the masses on mobile marketing basics, such as messaging and video. While these may drive the revenue, it's mobile advertising that's drawing all the attention. So although I've covered mobile advertising before, let's discuss the necessary steps if you want to add mobile advertising to your mix, using an American example:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

1.       Define strategies and objectives. As with all mobile marketing initiatives, understand the goals and objectives for any campaign you initiate.

2.       Choose your partner. A mobile advertising partner can include wireless operators (Sprint Nextel being the first to announce mobile advertising initiatives in October 2006), ad-serving companies (e.g., Third Screen Media, Enpocket, AdMob, MindMatics) or other full-service mobile marketing agencies/mobile application service providers, even digital ad agencies (e.g., ipsh! and Denuo). If the creative is already complete, you can also buy inventory from off-deck publisher sites, many of whom have established their own ad sales teams to assist.

3.       Choose the wireless media type. Although we're seeing advertising across multiple wireless media types, mobile Web and messaging (text) are the most predominant. This is due partly to consumer adoption and partly to guidelines and formats in place to help ensure rapid deployment. Other media types for consideration include MMS (multimedia messaging service), video and TV, downloadables, interactive voice response (IVR), and search.

4.       Build the campaign and launch. This can include all media types mentioned above, as well as on- and off-portal inventory. Off also includes advergaming and pre-roll video. The options are limitless.

Should consumers be concerned about mobile advertising intrusiveness? The number of inquiries my colleagues and I receive from the public is on the rise as mobile advertising gets more play in the media. The mobile channel is pristine. The always on, always available nature of a mobile device, always with the consumer, is a highly personal channel. We must be (and are being) careful to ensure a quality consumer experience. Relevancy and permission are the keys to this medium's success.

Mobile is consumer pull, not the push model that's become so prevalent in e-mail. We're working to ensure the mobile channel remains free of unsolicited campaigns. There's a win for consumers. If you already pay $5.99 for a monthly ring tone subscription service, for example, an ad subsidizing the service might provide a broader catalog of options at the same price.

For marketers, 2.2 billion worldwide mobile phone users means a new way to engage consumers where they are, globally. Mobile is changing how we reach consumers in a meaningful way.

Is 2007 the year of mobile advertising? We'll definitely see an increase in number of offers and opportunities globally.

What's <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Marketing?
By Laura Marriott | February 8, 2007 | ClickZ

To View Direct Article, please click HERE.

Ask most folks what mobile marketing is, and you'll get a wide range of responses: mobile advertising, mobile search, mobile messaging, ring tones… Every individual interpretation of mobile marketing is different. At the recent Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Asia Pacific chapter (APAC) launch in Hong Kong, I spent some time with the region's leaders to understand why there's confusion and what the interpretations are. Today, I'll outline the discussion around the different perceptions that may be affecting the industry's overall speed of growth in some regions.

Jawahar Kanjilal, director of multimedia experiences at Nokia Asia Pacific, told me mobile marketing may be confusing because it's new. All the players are evaluating and discussing mobile marketing with their own personal biases and experiences. It's still early days, and there are multiple visions and approaches to connecting with marketers. "Mobile marketing provides lots of options, including cross-media interactions, that the world has not seen today," said Kanjilal.

The mobile marketing bias tends to center around what a marketer believes will be successful. According to Kanjilal, mobile marketing is personal marketing. When you're personally engaged with a message or experience, marketing on the mobile context includes the ways you're engaged with the consumer. He believes mobile is the "first [time] a media has gone personal."

Sandy Agarwal, Asia Pacific managing director for Enpocket and MMA APAC chairperson, also believes mobile marketing means different things to different people. Interpretation and communication really depend on what part of the ecosystem you're in. Mobile advertising enablers focus on selling mobile advertising solutions and spin the mobile marketing definition to focus on advertising. According to Agarwal, the "key is to understand the means by which to use the mobile medium to build a one-on-one effective communication with the consumer."

Finally, a perspective from Geoffrey Handley, director of new business, Asia Pacific, for The Hyperfactory. According to Handley, brand owners believe they have the hardest job. They have a constant barrage of different people from the mobile ecosystem presenting single components or solutions to them without understanding the brand guardian must view the mobile channel as part of the overall media strategy. Handley views mobile marketing as using the mobile channel in whatever way best reflects an individual brand's needs and objectives when speaking to consumers. Decisions on which media assets and tactics should be leveraged are based on knowledge and demographics.

Three experts, three opinions. And they're all right. These individuals are deeply engaged in mobile media across geographies and solutions. Although their definitions may vary slightly, one thing remains clear: a mobile media strategy is unique to the brand and the consumer being targeted. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach, hence the need for experts. Education and evangelization about the types of opportunities available to the brand are paramount. There are lots of options, depending on brand goals.

If you're still wondering what the mobile channel can do for you, get engaged. The mobile channel isn't reckless creativity, it's iterative refinement. Try it, for all the reasons outlined above. It will maximize your consumer message and engagement.

Good luck!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Creative Text Messaging Campaigns Key to Mobile Marketing

WAP and MMS, Mobile Internet, banner ads and embedded product placement in mobile games are all buzz words currently associated with Mobile Marketing.  Wow, it’s all so fancy and whiz-bang!   Yet let us not forget the humble text message, potentially the most powerful tool in mobile marketing. 

For those brands and agencies looking into mobile marketing in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />U.S., make sure you understand the actual number of consumers you can reach today and in the near future with various mobile data applications.  In this sense, whiz-bang (WAP, MMS, mobile internet) gets whupped by text messaging for the near term. 

To get to real numbers, consider handset/device capability and consumer uptake of mobile data applications. 

In regards to handset/device capability, more than 90% of all mobile phones in the U.S. today are text-capable, or roughly 186 million of an estimated 207 million total subscribers (click HERE for details).  Approximately 60% of U.S. mobile phones are Internet-capable.  A smaller percentage of mobile phones are MMS capable.  Winner – text messaging.

As far as consumer uptake of mobile data applications, Telephia (click HERE for details) reports that 41% of U.S. mobile subscribers were using text messaging at the end of 2005.  Comparatively, 22% of U.S. mobile subscribers paid for mobile web access and 13% for MMS services at the end of 2005.

So strictly applying these percentages, a mobile marketers’ addressable market in the U.S. would be 84.8 million consumers for text messaging, 45.5 million for mobile internet and 26.9 for MMS.  However, both the mobile internet and MMS numbers are skewed.  The mobile internet users number includes mobile email devices, like Blackberry and Treo, and is not reflective of the true number of mobile subscribers who browse the mobile internet.  Telephia again provides an estimate for that, reporting that 34.6 million subscribers actively use mobile internet (click HERE for details). Telephia reports that Yahoo email is the most visited site, with MSN Hotmail also in the top 5.  When it comes to MMS, the traffic reported is almost entirely person-to-person messaging (sending photos, etc.).  The wireless industry is working to establish procedures and acceptance to enable Mobile Marketing MMS. 

So addressable market of consumers for mobile marketing applications looks something like this – <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

n        Text, 84.8 million subscribers

n        Mobile Internet (sans email), 34.6 million subscribers

n        MMS, potentially 26.9 million (today this number reflects primarily person to person picture messaging)

With all of that said, all of these exciting new areas of mobile marketing will grow including good old text messaging.

So it doesn’t look as sexy, so what?  Making text messaging applications work in marketing will take a new mindset for advertisers; unlike the more familiar internet methods used for MMS and mobile internet applications. This is where the creative marketing minds for America’s brands and ad agencies will make the U.S. market the biggest mobile marketing market in the world.  The creatives need to explore the multitude of text applications available to them.  A sampling – interactive TV, voting, polling, quizzes, sweepstakes, push alerts, callbacks, embedded URLs, location based services, intelligent interaction (ongoing CRM), sponsored flirt and chat, prescription reminders, bank account balance check, appointment scheduling.

Marketers need to educate themselves about text applications and vendors out there that can help them tap into the 84+ million Americans already predisposed to text messaging.

Mark Beccue is an independent business development & strategy consultant with expertise in helping advertising agencies and brands develop mobile marketing strategies and secure vendors and infrastructure.  His email is [email protected] or visit http://www.markbeccue.com.