What Services Are Driving Mobile Internet Usage?

BY Laura Marriott | May 18, 2006

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Mobile content services and data usage are growing faster than ever before. Yankee Group predicts the 2006 worldwide market for wireless data will be approximately $104 billion. The worldwide infotainment market, defined by Yankee Group as premium entertainment and information mobile content, is predicted to be approximately $35 billion of that $104 billion. Within the infotainment market, ring tones account for approximately 40 percent of the total, followed by gaming, graphics, video, and audio/music. One key factor for market growth is consumer interest in device personalization, entertainment, and fun. But what types of services and approaches are driving mobile Internet usage?

On Deck and Off Portal

Most of us are familiar with the mobile Internet "on-deck" portal services offered by carriers. On-deck features are the brands and information carriers choose to showcase directly on their mobile Internet home pages to provide consumers access to them. A carrier's on-deck content services usually must have mass interest and appeal to be placed and are generally sourced from the largest media and entertainment brands. On-deck services help drive overall data-service adoption.

Another factor currently driving mobile Internet use is "direct-to-consumer," or "off-portal," content. Direct-to-consumer mobile sites are usually 100 percent brand-owned sites that enable new revenue streams, control of the content offer by the third-party provider, and a direct interactive relationship with a consumer via the mobile device. The direct-to-consumer channel has become the fastest growing segment of the mobile content market. Anil Malhotra, SVP of marketing at Bango, says content providers can now reach their consumers directly via the mobile Internet to provide users with greater choice, including specialist and niche content, which may not be available on the carrier's deck.

Direct to consumer isn't about bypassing the carrier network to reach the consumer directly, however. It continues to utilize the carrier's infrastructure for delivery, support, and billing. It's simply a channel for content providers to market through carrier networks.

On deck and off portal aren't mutually exclusive, says Malhotra. Both are fundamental to the business and marketing models for a brand, and content providers should determine what works best for their target consumers, given their content. Bango's platform enables both major entertainment brands and minority interest content providers across sports, music, and other genres to provide off-deck mobile sites.

Off deck allows consumers to browse the Internet from their mobile devices and find the services that appeal most to them. I came across an off-portal service recently called Q121.com. It offers services similar to MySpace.com in that it provides a place to share information. All services offered on the Q121 Web site are free. Users are encouraged to post their favorite photos, tones, videos, and so on to share them with other members. This content can be shared across the Q121 community, giving consumers access to all the information on the Web and allowing them to connect with communities of interest.

According to Andrew Stollman, president of Q121, the services help encourage adoption of mobile Internet services and work to blend the experiences of consumers in both the mobile and Internet worlds. This personalization ability will help to drive overall adoption of the mobile Internet.

Productivity Services

Another driver for mobile Internet services are those that focus on increasing a user's productivity. Go2 provides directory assistance and navigation services to mobile power users. I spoke with Lee Hancock, CEO of go2, who told me their services are used by people who use the go2 mobile services to get around, obtain information, and ultimately increase their productivity. These services will also be key to driving adoption of the mobile content market, particularly for the business/power user.

Each of these service types will be critical to driving mobile-channel adoption and provide brands a means to target their consumers. For consumers, these options help provide ultimate flexibility and experience, providing access to the information they're seeking at the time they need it and giving them more opportunities to use mobile devices in their daily lives.

Work with your partners to determine the best approach for you.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

What a global view of mobile marketing and advertising can teach the United States

Thomas Burgess
CEO, Third Screen Media

Historically, the United States has lagged behind many of the world’s most advanced nations in the adoption of new media channels.  With the exception of TiVo/DVRs, most media technologies since the invention of radio have initially witnessed higher international usage rates than the US.  In 1939, there were 20,000 television sets in London, compared to only 7,000 in the US; yet the in the decades that followed, the US quickly developed into a TV culture where families lived and ate meals around their TV.  The same will ring true for another technology that is shaping the way Americans get their information: the mobile phone.

Take a flight to London, Paris, Seoul or Mumbai, and you’ll see mobile components to advertising campaigns as soon as you step off the plane.  From soda cans to giant billboards, mobile contests abound.  TV advertising encourages users to respond via mobile, subway platforms have Bluetooth-enabled content hotspots and viewers enjoy soap operas on their phones, courtesy of advertising.  

Marketers toying with international mobile efforts have seen tangible, qualitative results to mobile messaging components; response rates and usage for specific types of content that can be translated into future success stories.  Although traffic volume for international mobile marketing campaigns is relatively small, users are savvy and sophisticated.  As many of these markets are modest to begin with, they provide scaleable testing grounds for trial and error with a knowledgeable audience.

In Australia, marketers learned that ‘dwell advertising’ (advertising that is consumed during idle time, such as bus stops and train platforms) is a useful tactic for encouraging people to pick up their mobile phones and respond to an ad via SMS.  Though campaign SMS volumes remain moderate, advertisers have seen how some off-mobile media placements and channels prove far more effective at driving mobile usage than others.  

Global marketers have also discovered which content works best within the mobile landscape for specific target audiences.  American Express learned last year that the time-sensitive nature of sports made including a mobile element in its Wimbledon sponsorship more exciting, while Disney captured Japanese audiences with its mobisodes.  Johnnie Walker found a bottle cap SMS contest targeting consumers had a stronger effect on bartenders collecting caps and pushing more of their cocktails in the bars of Singapore.

Because many international marketers have abused the system by charging premium rates for responding to an ad via mobile, sending spim (mobile spam) and collecting phone numbers, audiences have grown savvy by seeking out the mobile fine print.  The key to a campaign’s success may rely on mobile ads promoting that a response via mobile is free to the end-user, or one that highlights the privacy policy on a WAP site data collection page.

The most valuable lessons that major brands are learning involve how to integrate mobile into their communications platform.  The U.S. market is still dominated by brands that want to dabble in mobile, while many entering the mobile space believe that simply being on a mobile phone increases brand awareness.  International advertisers are building campaigns that revolve around a mobile messaging concept or strategy and are finding formulas for success.

There is another lesson from overseas that shows consumers are fast reaching a saturation point for mobile content and services.  Growth in new subscriptions is limited, yet many international ad-supported mobile content providers such as Yahoo! continue to retain large audiences.  Consumers want premium content and don’t want to pay for dozens of seemingly small subscription fees that are burdensome in aggregate.  Large and small publishers will need to embrace the ad-supported model if the mobile marketplace in the US has intentions of expanding beyond the basic consumer messaging alert, ringtone or wallpaper download.

U.S. marketers and content publishers have much to learn from the successes and failures of their international counterparts.  But international markets should also be keeping a close eye on the US, as the most advanced media market is driving the ultimate goal in mobile advertising: to establish mobile as an independent media channel.  In this regard, Europe and Asia are following North America.

While international markets make great testing grounds for messaging and technology acceptance, the U.S. domestic media market is quickly advancing in practical application and establishing a mobile advertising infrastructure.  With the US leading in sales of mobile advertising, Madison Avenue ad agencies are structuring new departments led by experts in ‘emerging media,’ and media planners have tools available today that allow them to research and purchase ad inventory for mobile in terms and models they are familiar with: CPMs and auction models.  Mobile campaign measurement criteria are also being established in the US, which will inevitably define the success metrics for global campaigns. U.S. brands are further conducting awareness surveys and monitoring the addition of the mobile channel as part of their overall media mix. 

The mobile channel has become an advertising medium unto itself in the US.  With international messaging best practice and a domestic market media planning-buying infrastructure already in place, the critical mass is prime to develop; it is only a matter of time before the tipping point arrives.  When that happens, the US will become a culture that consumes mobile advertising faster than it learned to eat a TV dinner.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Understanding Mobile Marketing:  Going beyond text-message mobile marketing campaigns with branded interactive applications (The Cielo Group)  

For consumer-brand companies and their agencies, this paper explains the important differences between traditional text-message mobile marketing campaigns and mobile campaigns executed within an interactive application dedicated to your brand.

By <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Dean Macri,
President, Cielo Group  

Brand managers allocating their ad budgets to interactive marketing want more than simply “click through transactions.”  They want to build relationships with targeted consumers through content and communities.  Evidence can be seen in the success of  web destinations centered on branded lifestyle content and social networks such as P&G’s HomeMadeSimple.com and Pepsi’s MountainDew.com.

The desire to build relationships also holds true across the mobile channel.  The highly personal nature of the cell phone make it an ideal platform for building “content communities” in which consumers are willing participants.

However, success to date has been elusive.  Existing mobile campaigns based on text-messaging and other transactional models lack the interactivity needed to create direct relationships and encourage high frequency of use. 

Nevertheless, it is possible to offer mobile applications that reside on the handset and include rich, branded content.  These applications are highly interactive, with MVNO-like content interfaces, yet provide maximum reach across all wireless networks and many of today’s handsets.

Branded exclusively for a consumer-goods company, handset applications build loyal communities and establish affinities for the company’s brand.  They often provide on-demand video as just one part of an entertainment experience, encouraging subscribers to use the application every day, throughout the day.

Agencies such as Tribal, OgilvyOne, and aQuantive are already conducting mobile marketing campaigns using text messaging.  Yet many consumer-brand companies and their agencies lack the knowledge and technology to move beyond limited message-based mobile campaigns. Agencies and their clients are failing to take full advantage of the cell phone – what an executive at Quigley-Simpson calls “an exceptional response mechanism in the pocket of nearly every consumer.” <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Typical mobile campaigns employ text messaging to elicit a response from the consumer.  For example, to obtain the offer for a free ringtone, a consumer either enters his or her phone number at a website or sends a text message to a short code published on product labeling or in the primary media. These actions trigger a series of back-and-forth text messages, culminating with a message containing a link to download the ringtone.

Text-message marketing campaigns are a good first step in mobile marketing and, due largely to their relative novelty, produce much higher response rates than Internet-based email campaigns.  However, text-message campaigns carry limitations. They generally elicit a one-time response from the consumer: For example, “Yes, send me the free ringtone or a joke every week.” These campaigns cannot engage the consumer in further communication beyond a simple opt in.  As a result, the marketer is unable to re-engage with the consumer and advance the relationship.

Mobile interactivity
In contrast to text messages, truly interactive mobile applications reside on the cell-phone itself  to connect companies directly to consumers and deliver a complete entertainment experience. Branded for media and consumer-goods firms, these applications enable firms to:

·          Engage with subscribers in an ongoing relationship;

·          Establish social networks through blogging;

·         Build communities where consumers post their own image and video content;   and

·          Create unprecedented advertising, sales and revenue opportunities.

These applications contain on-demand streaming video as part of the application “experience.” Video content is refreshed frequently, encouraging consumers to use the application every day, throughout the day.  For example, Cielo’s Portable Hollywood application, distributed by Jamster and discovered in magazine ads, provides different video features each day of the week, from red-carpet interviews with movie stars and celebrities to high-lights of movies opening soon.  

So what is a handset-resident mobile application?  Think of it as a browser on the phone that is dedicated entirely to your company’s brand. An application that resides on the phone with only one destination – yours.  Your content. Your interactive campaigns. Your customers connecting directly to you.

Handset-resident applications combine fresh streaming video and music with image galleries, lifestyle information, news, blogging, offers, and interactive features that survey consumers and sell products. Cross selling is facilitated by the gathering of consumers’ profiles and interests.

As important, interactive applications become “advertainment” for consumers, who form an affinity with the brand.  Consumers view their cell phones as an extension of themselves and these applications as part of their personal lifestyle.

Consumers can easily download an interactive application to their cell phones. To reach the over-30 demographic, interactive applications have website-like graphical user interfaces that adults are familiar and comfortable with.

One-time or continuous interaction?
Text messaging campaigns fail to connect directly to the consumer.  For example, a
mobile-phone user might respond to an offer with in a car magazine ad for free wallpaper featuring a Dodge truck.  To receive the wallpaper, he sends a text message to a short code contained within the ad. A short code functions like a mobile URL.  However, once the offer is fulfilled through a one-time download of the wall paper, the connection with that consumer is lost.  The severed connection precludes Dodge from continuing a dialogue with the user and from collecting behavioral information useful for future targeted marketing and communication.

In contrast, a consumer-brand company that offers a complete mobile application gains a continuous interactive relationship with the consumer.  An interactive application entertains the consumer every day.  A direct connection to the consumer is attained each time he or she uses the application. Interactions with the consumer take place within a graphical user interface, avoiding more cumbersome and limited back-and-forth text messaging. Unlike messaging campaigns, interactive applications are better at brand building, delivering advertainment and driving revenue.

Discovery and distribution
The only instance that the interactive application depends on traditional messaging is in its initial distribution to the consumer.  The application is first discovered through short codes found within primary media and on product packaging such as cereal boxes and candy wrappers.  When a consumer sends a text message to a published short code  she receives a return message with a link.  Opening the link downloads the complete application to the cell phone. Downloading a complete advertainment application is as easy as downloading a ringtone.

Driving sales while building brand 
Interactive mobile applications that incorporate rich-streaming media not only position your product and build brand, but drive traffic and sales back to your company. They present advertising opportunities by streaming branded content along with commerce links to purchase merchandise. For example, Cielo’s Gravity Channel application for action sports streams video clips of snowboarding competitors using Burton equipment. Gravity Channel combines this video with interactive features that allow snowboarding enthusiasts to obtain Burton gear from the phone.

Own the mobile subscriber 
A handset-resident interactive application makes an exceptional lifestyle and personal
entertainment product.  When branded, it establishes an affinity between the consumer
and brand. Once the application is distributed directly to the subscriber, the brand now owns the relationship with that subscriber.

“The carriers are not willing to give the  advertising companies demographic data about the subscriber,” explains Gary Towning, group account director at OgilvyOne Worldwide.  “We don’t want to irritate the consumer; we want to target our campaigns and make them as relevant as possible.”

Consumers want to use mobile interactive applications, because they find them entertaining.  As the publisher and distributor of its own handset-resident mobile application, the consumer-brand company knows exactly who the subscriber is.  Therefore, the consumer brand can drive any type of customer relationship campaign.  Because the application supports true interactivity and an immediate response mechanism, highly granular information can be quickly collected to support targeted promotions. 

Awkward text-messaging or simple navigation?
Messaging campaigns require precise text-message responses from consumers. An
inaccurate or ambiguous response will trigger annoying messages seeking clarification. In addition, messaging campaigns must interpret free-form text.  If, for example, a baseball cap is offered, the consumer is asked to send a text message with his or her address.  The burden is then on the messaging provider to correctly parse and interpret the text. 

An interactive application contains a more effective graphical user interface.  A consumer simply selects the style of cap and its size, and enters his or her address within address fields – if the application hasn’t already captured profile information. 

Furthermore, revenue from subscription-based applications can defray the expense of free or discounted merchandise.  In fact, free gear can be used as an incentive for consumers to originally subscribe to the application.  Note, however, that subscription applications are most common with media and entertainment companies (for example, Major League Baseball), while consumer-branded applications are often free.

If a subscription fee is charged for the application, then a dollar amount appears on the consumer’s monthly bill from the mobile carrier, which takes a percentage.  However, a carrier may be unwilling to place merchandise charges on a cellular bill.  Furthermore, a
consumer-goods company may be unwilling to share merchandise revenue with the carrier.  By owning the application, the consumer company is free to establish alternate billing models for merchandise such as a credit card.

One-stop campaigns
Typical mobile marketing campaigns require consumers to register first at the company’s website. Why? Because text-message campaigns lack the interactivity to capture registration information directly from the phone.  Only after this information is collected at the website can consumers begin receiving messages to their cell phones. Interactive mobile applications preclude the need to drive consumers first to a company’s website, since capturing information is easily accomplished. This one-stop campaign provides a smoother, friendlier experience and also allows companies to capture profile and demographic information useful for target marketing.        

The future of mobile marketing
The global proliferation of mobile phones with text messaging means that text-message campaigns still have their place. Not all phones in use today support more advanced features such as streaming video – which enable interactive applications to deliver the most compelling experience for consumers. 

However, with the number of advanced handsets growing rapidly along with high-speed mobile networks, the time is right for consumer-brand companies to own
their own branded mobile applications.  These companies stand to:

     •  Seize early-mover advantage,

     •  Establish strong brand presence, and

     •  Capture revenue from interactive mobile marketing.      

Getting Started:  Maximize your reach
In summary, your mobile marketing strategy should put your brand (or your client’s brand) in the pockets of the broadest number of consumers and provide the most engaging, interactive experience possible. 

Companies might consider starting with traditional text-message campaigns, while simultaneously planning their development, discovery and distribution strategy for branded, rich-media interactive applications.  A number of vendors today provide a messaging and short-code platform to implement your mobile campaigns.  Yet, marketers should consider messaging technology from a vendor that can:

1.       Help formulate strategies for discovery and distribution of their branded mobile products.

2.       Use short codes to tie mobile campaigns to the client’s entire brand strategy.  For example, the marketing strategy for a new beauty product should publish the short code for the mobile campaign in the product’s print and media campaigns. 

3.       Provide mobile-marketing technology that automatically detects the capabilities of each consumer’s phone and delivers a mobile “experience” optimized for that particular handset.  For example, some consumers may receive text containing a text joke every week from a famous comedian, while others obtain a streaming video of a standup comic.

Dean  Macri Bio:
Dean Macri is president of Boston-based Cielo Group (www.cielo-group.com), the first company to  stream video to cells phones, launching applications that it built for Major League Baseball, the NBA and Nokia.  Cielo publishes, hosts and manages interactive, handset applications that extend the reach of media, entertainment, and consumer-brand companies. Macri built Cielo to also provide message-based delivery of mobile content and micro sites in order to give ad agencies a one-stop solution and evolutionary path that meets the mobile-marketing needs of their clients. A veteran of the mobile industry, Macri is an engaging speaker who has talked at numerous mobile conferences including CTIA, MES, NATPE and NAB. 

Macri can be reached at [email protected].

Why the Mobile Phone is Becoming A Key Brand Marketing Channel
By Michael K. Baker
CEO, Enpocket

Armed with Tivos, iPods, satellite radios, and the remote control, consumers are no longer passive consumers of media.   Smart advertisers are looking for interactive, personal, and measurable ways to engage with consumers, and all roads are leading to mobile phones.  Brands, agencies, media, and entertainment companies are learning that mobile offers them a nearly ideal channel for building consumer intimacy.  First, mobile has unequalled reach with over 2 billion mobile accounts globally and over 200 million in the US.  Second, the mobile channel affords the marketer the opportunity to provide highly targeted, time-sensitive, location-sensitive messaging on a personal device that is often with the consumer around the clock. 

Text messaging or SMS is the most widely adopted wireless data service and provides the broadest reach for marketers.  Mobile consumers can send a text message into a 5-digit “short code” typically promoted in existing media (on-air, online or print), and get reply messages with brand information, entertainment or other engagement with the brand.  Text messaging is turning one-way, analog forms of advertising such as TV and outdoor into interactive media.  Take a walk through Times Square, and you will get a flavor for the potential of mobile advertising.  Billboards invite consumers to text in for coupons for lattes or free samples of a new fragrance.  Walt Disney World promotes a new theme park attraction with a mobile code that allows consumers to opt in for further text promotions from Disney. Absolut has an enormous billboard featuring Lenny Kravitz inviting passers by to text in to receive a free Kravitz mp3 song download.

In Europe and Asia, where the penetration rates for mobile phones and novel data services are 6-12 months ahead of the US, text messaging is just the beginning.  Multimedia messaging or MMS, the mobile technology behind picture and video messaging, is being used by large brand marketers like Vodafone in lieu of direct mail.  With MMS, marketers are not limited to simple text messages, but can create graphically rich messages complete with pictures, animations, audio, and video that play like mini slide shows or video clips.  With no print or mail costs, MMS is less expensive than direct mail, faster to deploy campaigns, and more effective in generating consumer responses (10%-50% response rates are currently the norm).  Responses can include internet-like click-throughs to a mobile internet promotional site as well as outbound or inbound phone calls to call centers, for example.

While most marketers are familiar with the growing importance of the Internet in consumers’ lives, and hence the power of interactive display advertising on the web, few are aware that mobile phone users are increasingly using their phones to connect to the mobile internet to get updates on breaking news, browse for entertainment, and find information on the go.  Indeed, 28% of mobile phone owners have used their phones to browse the Internet.  Publishers of information and entertainment on the Web are now creating companion mobile internet sites that extend their audience touch-points into the realm of mobility.  As mobile audiences build, advertisers are finding viable, and in some cases compelling, reach for mobile internet display ads.  Like online banner ads, these ads are comprised of simple text and/or graphics, are clickable, and lead consumers to a desired conversion mechanic such as a product registration page.  Unlike the Internet, however, the conversion can be click-to-call (eg, a click that initiates an outbound call to a call center), click-to-buy (with the purchase appearing on the phone bill) or click for a text message reply that provides product information.  Current response rates for mobile internet display advertising are typically at least 10x greater than internet banner ads.  Of course, this ad unit has the benefit currently of being novel and inhabiting clean, uncluttered terrain that is years away from the saturation of the banner ad.

An effective mobile advertising strategy takes time and planning.  Marketers should be asking themselves:  “What am I doing right now to leverage what may be the most important channel in the history of advertising?”  Here are some actions that every serious marketer should be taking today:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

1.       Incorporate mobile into your opt-in program immediately.  If you are gathering email addresses, you should also be collecting mobile phone numbers.  The wireless phone works like nothing else when it comes to time and location targeting.  Imagine the power of being able to drive foot traffic into retail locations or quick serve restaurants during slow day parts with on-the-fly time sensitive text messaging promotions.

2.       Identify a comprehensive mobile strategy.  Recall 1995, and you will note similar parallels. Consider your web strategy and identify how it could be enhanced by mobility.  SMS and MMS are powerful mechanics for push messaging but require customer permission.  Mobile internet banner advertising is pull strategy but requires careful execution because of the small real estate the mobile phone affords.  What is the call to action?  Will you require a landing page or your own mobile internet site? Wap sites will be as common as web sites, so stake your claim early. 

3.       Provide value.  It may seem painfully obvious.  However, there are unique opportunities to provide value in a mobile environment.  Marketers can leverage the multimedia capabilities as well as the anytime, anywhere nature of the mobile device.  For example, movie studios can promote new releases in the form of mobile film trailers on Friday afternoons to consumers who have opted in.  Brands can also sponsor mobile consumables such as downloadable music, games for instant actionable gratification.

4.       Don’t assume if you are not doing something on your mobile phone that others aren’t also.  While we may not all be on the cutting edge of technology with the latest gadgets, acknowledge that there are millions of people who send 10 text messages before they have their morning coffee and don’t let a day pass without checking their email on a mobile device. 

5.       Engage with vendors who have experience in the mobile space.  It is a mistake to approach mobile as you would another advertising medium.  Now is the time to enlist specific and proven expertise.  In choosing a mobile partner from the clucking flock of mobile marketing vendors, choose one who understands the medium and has experience working in all formats of push and pull mobile marketing and advertising.

Michael Baker is CEO of Enpocket.  Enpocket is a global leader in intelligent mobile marketing, enabling organizations to foster and maintain valuable relationships with mobile consumers.  Enpocket creates, delivers and optimizes mobile marketing and advertising programs that combine rich media and advanced targeting. From predictive analytics to engaging multimedia promotions, Enpocket's range of technologies and creative services enable big brands to embrace mobile and realize improved campaign returns.

Enpocket provides mobile marketing that works for hundreds of customers, including Vodafone, Sprint, Alltel, Airtel, Singtel, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Trinity Mirror, TNT, A&E, Chrysalis, Clear Channel, Internet Broadcast Systems, Time Out, Match.com, Pepsi and Nike.  Enpocket has offices in Boston, London, and Mumbai.

Achieving Spontaneity: The Key to Mobile Marketing Campaigns that Work
By Tim Jemison, CEO, Zoove

There is an undeniable shift in the media consumption habits of Americans.  We’re going online more than we’re tuning in.  We’re texting, blogging, photographing and watching videos on our phones instead of just calling from them.  We’re listening to podcasts instead of simply reading the newspaper.  As a result, marketers are shifting their focus as well, finding new ways to create the dialogue between brands and consumers.  This month Merrill Lynch downgraded its forecasts for traditional ad spending in newspapers, radio and broadcast media.  At the same time, non-traditional forms of marketing – including mobile marketing, branded entertainment, and video-on-demand – are projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14.8% to $253.7 billion in 2010 according to media research firm PQ Media in a report out this month.

There’s a reason why non-traditional marketing is so hot.  New media – especially mobile media – offer brands a host of opportunities to connect with consumers in ways never before possible.   Mobile media enables brands to deliver the closest thing to instant gratification.  By simply pulling out a phone and reaching out, consumers can enter a contest, win a free soft drink, download a song – the possibilities are endless.  But there’s another side of the equation as well.

Consumers can more easily tune out.  Loosing touch with the consumer is now as easy as a click.  A mobile URL is difficult, if not impossible to enter using a number pad.  Text messaging requires users to open an application on their phone and enter two sets of numbers – one in the address field and one in the text field.  While brands are closer than ever to consumers, it’s now easier for consumers to put them away. 

The key to making mobile marketing work is to maintain the mobile users’ perception of spontaneity. The more planning that a consumer has to do to connect with a brand, the less likely he or she is to follow through with a response.  Mobile technology has come a long way in making handsets easy to use, but there is still room for improvement.  What if mobile users could simply dial a brand name (such as PEPSI) to enter a survey, win a prize or see the latest music video from Pepsi’s musical spokesperson? 

Two companies are now championing such a solution. The first is Motricity, with its pound (#) dialing invocation. The second is Zoove, with its StarStar (**) dialing method. With pound dialing, users are sent to an IVR session to order ring tones and other consumable data. With StarStar dialing, data sessions are pushed directly upon request to the consumer’s handset. There’s no need for an IVR session.

When Zoove initially began engineering its technology, it conducted several focus groups to test user understanding of the pound (#) symbol versus dialing the Star (*) symbol. Test revealed that users found marketing messages such as “Dial #SPORTS” to actually means “dial number SPORTS.” In many cases, the consumer dialed only the corresponding numbers and not the “#” symbol. There’s a deep perception that the # symbol means both pound and number. Additionally, # is frequently used as a terminator in many IVR sessions. “Enter your account number followed by the # symbol,” for instance.

StarStar dialing works by letting mobile users invoke WAP and SMS messages by simply dialing * * (two stars) and then a vanity code (for example, **CBS, **Volvo or **Weather).  Mobile users do not have to activate a browser or text application. Once a user dials the ** number and a brand name, the service connects them to the application and sends them the information they are requesting (via email, SMS or eventually WAP or MMS) or places them into the application to vote, give feedback, or view media.

Eliminating the step of opening a WAP browser or a text application will make consumer response easier, faster and simpler.  It can also bridge the demographic gap.  A recent study conducted by MRI/Mediamark and Frost and Sullivan tested Zoove’s StarStar dialing.  Results of the study showed an 87 percent success rate in mobile users over the age of 35 using StarStar dialing.

There’s no denying that mobile marketing is hot.  In addition to the forecasts from Merrill Lynch and PQ Media, Yahoo!, Coca-Cola and MSNBC all announced major mobile initiatives recently.  While mobile marketing opens up many opportunities for brands, it is inherently limited by several factors.  Mobile broadband is much slower than traditional broadband, the mobile screen is small and difficult for older users to read, and navigation is difficult and in many cases tedious.  The way in which marketers overcome these challenges with technology and educational programs will have a lot to do with the future of the industry. Keeping mobile response fun, easy and interesting is the key to success.

TIMOTHY H. JEMISON
Chief Executive Officer, Zoove

Mr. Jemison is an accomplished communications and technology executive with proven success in entrepreneurship and launching and developing startup companies into viable commercial enterprises.

He has been a Director of Sales for Appiant Technologies (NASDAQ: APPS), a software applications and communications infrastructure organization providing hosted carrier class Unified Messaging solutions for service providers (Wireless, ISP, LEC's, ASP) and large enterprise customers. Customers included AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Verizon Landline.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Mr. Jemison served as Vice President of Operations and Chief Technology Officer for CollegeLink.com from September 1999 to May 2000. He was a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Online Scouting Network, Inc., an Internet-based athletic recruiting service. Mr. Jemison was featured on the cover of Success Magazine in November 1996, describing the $1.5 million angel investment he secured for OSN from 15 professional athletes.

Moving To The Groove: The Rise of Mobile Social Networking – And What It Means To Marketers

By Rick Mathieson
Adapted from the book, BRANDING UNBOUND: The Future of Advertising, Sales, And The Brand Experience In the Wireless Age

Available wherever books are sold

When 30-year-old Manhattanite Dennis Crowley wants to party, he can always count on 10,000 of his closest friends. 

Like many young tech industry professionals caught up in the dot-com implosion of 2000, Crowley’s sizable circle of friends, colleagues and acquaintances found themselves laid off and drifting apart – their social networks crumbling as the number of familiar faces at favorite nightclubs and watering holes grew fewer.

So Crowley did something about it. Drawing on his programming skills, he developed a rudimentary mobile system that would allow the first of his buddies to venture out on say, Wednesday night, to broadcast his location to the whole gang so they could all meet up.

“For the first couple of years, there were maybe 25 of us using it, and then we started to look back at what had happened in the last couple of years – text messaging having become ubiquitous and everyone was starting to use camera phones, which I knew because I was even getting camera phone messages from my mom,” he says.

Venturing back to school for a Master’s Degree in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University, Crowley teamed up with classmate Alex Rainert, 30, to turn his idea – called Dodgeball.com –  into a formal service as part of their thesis project.

“We looked at the online social networking space – Friendster, Meet-up, Nerve.com – and we asked, how could we take some of the lessons learned from that and apply it to [the mobile space],” he says, referring to online social networking sites that enable friends, and friends of friends, to synch up and plan get-togethers via the wireline Internet.

By contrast, Dodgeball would be designed specifically to help you get it on when you’re on the go.

By the time of its formal launch in April of 2004, over 5,500 New Yorkers, along with 3,000 users in San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles had signed up for the free service to alert friends of their whereabouts so they can meet up, make plans, or just get their gossip on.

Since then, Dodgeball has evolved into a social networking cause célèbre for hip young singles on the move – spawning numerous competitors. In fact, by the following May, search giant Google had acquired the service for an undisclosed sum – telegraphing, as it were, the ascendancy of location-based mobile social networking.

Meet up, get down
Here’s how it works. You pull up a seat at Tom & Jerry’s at Elizabeth and Houston at 7:30 PM. You send a message: “@Tomnjerry to [email protected]”. Instantly, your entire buddy list receives a text message about your whereabouts. But Dodgeball doesn’t stop there. In addition to pinging your friends, the system also pings all the friends of your friends that are within 10 blocks. They receive a message such as, “Joe is over at Tom n Jerry’s. You know Joe through Karen. Why don’t you stop over and say hi.” These friends of friends often send pictures via camera phone to each other so they can find each other in crowded bars.

“It’s like a short cut,” Alexander Clemens, a thirtysomething political consultant in San Francisco, told The New York Times. “All it takes is one quick note to tell friends where the party’s at.”

Which is all very cool. But there’s still more. Since users sign up for service through the Dodgeball Web site, where they’ve included profiles and, if they wish, photos, they can browse other members and build “crush lists” – up to five crushes at a time. Whenever one of those crushes comes within 10 blocks, the system gives you a head’s up. The crush gets a message: “Hey, this guy Joe is over at Tom & Jerry’s. He thinks you’re cute. Why don’t’ you stop by and say hi?” Joe gets a more enticing, if more cryptic, alert: “One of your crushes is within 10 blocks. We won’t tell you where, we just told them where you are, so make yourself presentable.”

Which is to say this wireless wingman is less about “smart mobs” than about booty calls.

“The moment we turned this feature on, it was like 1:30 Tuesday morning, and 10 minutes later, the first message got sent out to a friend of mine,” says Crowley. “He goes down the street to meet the girl, who’s just realized she received a photo on her phone, and was showing it to her friend. There was this strange, awkward moment like, ‘Hey, you’re the guy in the photo, this is kind of weird.’ But they had a drink together. That was the first time it ever happened, and now it happens all the time.”

What it means to marketers
Advertisers have always been the bête noires of social networkers.      

But for certain lifestyle brands, Dodgeball’s unique blend of cell phones and over-sexed singles seems like a natural fit, as long as they tread carefully.

“We’re the number one users of the system in terms of number of friends, and the last thing I want to build is something that’s going to cause me not to want to use it,” says Crowley.

Enter: Absolut vodka, the first major brand to take notice of Dodgeball, testing the nascent service as a way to reach affluent young hipsters when they’re most likely to be enticed to indulge in the marketer’s product.

In addition to sponsoring SMS messages to remind subscribers to use Dodgeball when they’re out, Absolut tested a campaign called “Flavor the Summer,” in which Dodgeball members could click on a banner on the Dodgeball home page to add the beverage as a “friend” to their network. Once members opted-in, Absolut would send messages to users asking them to tell Dodgeball about their current whereabouts in exchange for information about nearby events, happenings, happy hour venues, after-hours venues and more.

For example, every Tuesday at 6 PM, the system would cross-reference a weather database and send users a message that reads, say:

“What a gorgeous day! Reply with @venuename telling us where u are. Dodgeball and Absolut will send the closest outdoor patio.

When they reply, members would then receive a follow-up message based on their location:

“Dodgeball & Absolut suggest you work on your tan and enjoy a cocktail at The Water Club (at 30^th Street)”

(Absolut is one of the first major brands to test out social networking services like Dodgeball as a way to reach hip young consumers on the go. Photo: Dr. Jaeger.com.)

“Our consumers are more and more mobile and we need to look at alternate message delivery vehicles to reach them,” says Lorne Fisher, spokesperson for Absolut. “If Absolute is top of mind, it may be a way to generate more ‘call’ in bars, restaurants, liquor stores, and so on.”

In the future, look for social networking capabilities to be built into a number of products.

New-fangled electronic t-shirts, available from high-tech retailer Cyberdog, for instance, come with a postcard-sized passive-matrix display that enables the wearer to flash 32-character messages across the chest. Combine that with an RFID tag within a wirelessly connected environment, or even just built-in Bluetooth, and whenever a member of a particular social network comes within range, the shirts could flash messages to facilitate a hook up. 

All sponsored by a mutually preferred brand name, of course. 

(For more, pick up a copy of BRANDING UNBOUND wherever books are sold, today.)

###

Adapted from BRANDING UNBOUND: The Future of Advertising, Sales and the Brand Experience in the Wireless Age © 2005 Rick Mathieson, Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, New York, NY.  Used with permission.  All rights reserved. http://www.amacombooks.org.

Available wherever books are sold

www.BrandingUnbound.com

Purchase from Amazon.com here (link to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0814472877/qid=1107812892/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-2869542-5574551?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Benefits of Industry Associations
Laura Marriott, President, Mobile Marketing Association

DMA, CTIA, IAB, GSMA, CDG, MEF, RCA, AAAA, MMA…  an alphabet soup of abbreviations representing the leading industry and trade associations in the marketing, advertising and wireless industries.  An association is an organized group of individuals with a common purpose, interest or activity.  Each of the associations, in our space, plays a critical role in establishing best practices, education, industry leadership or the technical standards for which our industry adheres.  Association membership is crucial for companies who are seeking to be engaged and take a leadership position in what drives each industry.

So what benefits do associations provide?  The benefits that a company can extract from association membership depends on the company’s or member’s individual goals and objectives.  If a company is a new entrant in the space, perhaps they want to meet others in their space – and in this scenario, networking plays a key role for these member companies.  In other instances, companies will join an association to lead the development of standards and best practices which create the baseline of standards for which the industry and providers will eventually adopt and adhere to.  Still others, will join for the financial discounts and incentives for events, research publications, etc which are offered to member companies as part of their affiliation.  Some associations will also provide a collective voice for the industry in regards to issues of regulation and policy which is crucial for organizations that do not have their own resources or expertise in this area.  Bottom line, although each association may offer varied membership benefits, associations are generally comprised of industry leaders whose goal is to work together to build a professional and sustainable industry (and industry organization).  Members realize that together they have more industry impact and influence than working alone – and associations provide an ideal means for members to achieve this goal.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

How is work product executed within an association?  The creation of standards, best practices and use cases is generally done through the work output of committees, councils, special interest groups and/or task forces.  These are ‘work teams’ comprised of member company individuals whose goal is to work together to create the baseline rules of engagement for the industry.  For example, the IAB has an email committee which is a forum for direct marketing media professionals of IAB member companies whose objective is to support this medium as a valuable channel to advertisers and their agencies.  The MMA has a Consumer Best Practices Committee, comprised of member participants from across the value chain, whose goal is to lead the industry in the development of guidelines for mobile data to ensure a better experience for the wireless subscribers.  Association staff also plays a key role in leading the development of initiatives, alongside member companies.  Evaluate the committees that your association or prospective association offers or is considering to ensure the focus is right for you.

Many associations also offer events.  The role of association events are to educate, evangelize and teach members and non-members about the industry.  Events also provide a good venue to discuss developments within association initiatives as well establish new networking affiliations.  Association events are one of the best venues to gather impartial information about an industry or subject area.  Check your association’s website for details.

When evaluating associations for your company to join, it is best to first determine your company and individual objectives – as well as whether or not you have the resources to apply to membership initiatives (if that is your goal).  Then, pick the associations whose issues most closely align with your goals and objectives and join the team.  In many cases, it makes sense to join multiple associations in order to ensure all of your needs are addressed. 

At the Mobile Marketing Association, we work with member companies to identify their goals and objectives and seek to match association participation against these goals.  All associations will do this to ensure that member needs are being addressed, both short term and long term, and members are satisfied with their participation in the organizations. 

Associations are a rewarding experience for those interested in taking a leadership position in their industry. 

Mobile Marketing Best Practices: Understanding the Rules

BY Laura Marriott | May 4, 2006

To View the Direct Article, Click HERE

What role do standards or best practices play in the mobile marketing industry, and how do we create the best practices by which our industry adheres?

A best practice is a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result. Once best practices are determined, commitment is the key to ensuring success in overall adoption and support. Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) members and the mobile industry at large have developed and adhere to the MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines (PDF file download) to ensure that as the mobile content market develops, consumers not only have a positive mobile experience but are also treated fairly by all in the value chain.

This column will focus on a case study around the MMA Consumer Best Practices (CBP), which have become the baseline set of rules for the North American mobile marketing industry.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

• Who are the players? Most important in establishing best practices is ensuring appropriate representation from the companies and individuals in the ecosystem. Representation is important for knowledge and awareness and to ensure adoption of the guidelines once they're published. In our latest review of the MMA CBP, development was led by the MMA CBP Committee, chaired by David Oberholzer of Verizon Wireless and composed of 14 member companies from across the value chain. We also held an industry forum (in January 2006) attended by over 80 individuals representing approximately 50 different companies, members and non-members alike. An industry forum was key to ensuring all issues and concerns were addressed. The participants providing feedback represented companies from across North America, including wireless operators, agencies, brands, content providers, aggregators, and technology vendors. Collaboration across industry participants has been an important to the success of the CBP.
• How are best practices prioritized? The March 2006 CBP document features new best practices around chat and affiliate marketing and modified rules for interactive TV. Why these new additions and changes? Bottom line, best practices are focused around industry needs; need from a consumer perspective, carrier communications, or a general area of industry concern. The CBP Committee maintains an ever-growing list of issues to be addressed in the next review.
• How often should guidelines be updated? It's important to continually evaluate best practices, really a living document, to ensure accuracy and that all industry needs and issues are addressed. The CBP guidelines are reassessed and launched every six months, given the fast pace of growth in the mobile industry. An iterative best practices development process, which progresses in incremental stages, helps maintain focus on manageable additions while ensuring earlier modifications are successful before later stages are launched.
• What happens once the guidelines are published? Once the CBP are published to the industry, each company in the value chain implements them among its staffers. Communication also occurs between each company and its respective vendors to ensure all are advised of guideline changes. Communication is critical to adoption. The best practices are also included in carrier and aggregator contracts and enforced by significant business penalties.
• What role do best practices play in shaping the industry? Best practices help all industry participants know and understand the baseline set of rules that, in turn, ensure consumers are treated fairly and have a positive user experience. All this will ultimately grow the mobile platform as a new business channel.
• What are the next steps? Best practices are a first step in building an industry and really reflect its maturity. Next steps? We must monitor against these best practices to ensure the success and integrity of the mobile content business (as well as adherence to the best practices guidelines). Most carriers and aggregators today perform a version of their own monitoring, with enforcement at the discretion of the carrier. Collectively, the industry is also evaluating a new industry-wide monitoring initiative.

Best practices help ensure a level playing field and consistent consumer expectations in all mobile data services. Best practices are important not only to grow the industry but to ensure a positive consumer experience. Understanding and adhering to industry best practices are key to everyone's success. Make sure you understand the rules we play by.

Building Loyalty Via Mobile Devices

By Laura Marriott |  April 20, 2006

To View Direct Article, Click HERE

A few terms to define before starting this week's column on relationship and loyalty marketing.

Wikipedia defines relationship marketing as a form of marketing that evolved from direct response marketing in which emphasis is placed on building longer term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. Relationship marketing involves understanding the customers' needs as they go through their life cycles while emphasizing a broad range of services to existing customers as they need them. Loyalty marketing programs, on the other hand, are designed to increase customer satisfaction and retention through communications-based loyalty and rewards programs.

So what do relationship and loyalty marketing mean to the mobile world? Bottom line, it's about extending your relationship with your consumer and ensuring they receive increasing value from your brand. Loyalty programs are just one opportunity.

I'll start with a cool example of relationship marketing from Sprint Nextel and the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas for a soon-too-launch campaign. The Luxor Hotel recently trialed a program together with Sprint Nextel. It emphasizes the opportunity to extend the relationship with the consumer.

When a guest made a reservation at the Luxor, they were asked if they wanted to opt-in to receive automatic check-in when they arrived in Las Vegas. Then, using location services, the consumer received a text message when they arrived in the Las Vegas city limits prompting them for automatic check-in via their mobile device. For those who haven't traveled to Las Vegas, the queues for check-in are often enormous. This new service enabled the consumer to bypass the check-in lines when they arrived at the hotel. The Luxor immediately began to establish a stronger relationship and tie with its consumers. But that's only the beginning...

According to John Styers, director of data communications for Sprint Nextel, this is one step in building and establishing a strong relationship with the consumer. Imagine placing a 'geofence' around the hotel which told you, the hotel owner, when guests were in and out of your facility. Imagine being able to push messages to guests (once they had opted in, of course) to get them back to your hotel with discounts, rewards or other loyalty incentives. And for the brand, imagine being able to target your guest base if seats are left in your venue and you're looking to fill them? Talk about relationship marketing! That's giving your consumers what they want, when they need it.

Once you've reinforced the relationship, you can continue to build and solidify that relationship with loyalty incentives. Sticking to the Vegas theme with Sprint Nextel, I saw another cool mobile application involving the Las Vegas Monorail and mobile ticketing. The monorail application moves away from paper tickets, using a mobile's unique phone ID as the identifier. What's great about this application is that the 2D bar code used for the e-ticketing application can also be applied and utilized for other applications. Styers says the mobile ticketing application provides a great opportunity for the repeat consumer to benefit from loyalty programs, but it also provides the brand with the opportunity to track the number of times that consumers use the various coupon and information functionalities offered through the service.

MobileLime, a Boston-based company, is taking the concept of loyalty a step further with its Mobile Wallet product. Mobile Wallet allows consumers to pay, get rewards, and redeem coupons using their mobile device. Using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology consumers are able to access the application, select a credit card and wave their device over the reader at the point of sale system during checkout. But integration into the retailer's point-of-sale system at isn't mandatory. Companies like Sprint Nextel and MobileLime encourage the use of the mobile number as the unique identifier for consumers to earn rewards, while allowing the brands to build and extended and personalize relationship with their customers. Mobile provides an immediate opportunity to expand the relationship with the consumer with no costly upgrades to point-of-sale systems.

Once consumers opt-in to participate in a loyalty program, they can elect to receive weekly e-mails and relevant text messages on their cell phone that contain exclusive information about alerts, specials, member incentives, and so on. Alerts also allows the retailer to communicate store specific information. During a snowstorm, for example, retailers can send notifications regarding whether or not their store is open.

Robert Wesley, president and CEO of MobileLime, says the benefits to both the brands and consumers are clear. With 75 percent of all households engaged in a loyalty program, an extension to mobile is obvious. What's critical, says Wesley, is that you need to use the phone in the right way and create a 1-to-1 relationship with the consumer. And while there may be a perceived issue with point-of-sale integration, it's really not required right out of the gate.

Mobile provides the best opportunity to establish a trusted, timely relationship with your customers. Once you have that relationship, extend through the use of mobile rewards and loyalty programs that keep your consumer with you and your brand.

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Mobile Marketing Forum (MMF) presented by the MMA - June 7, NYC
Mobile is providing brands a reach to their consumers like never before: always on, always available and everywhere. Attend this one day event to learn how to integrate the mobile channel into your initiatives--what's hot, what's not, how to get involved and how to measure success. Held in conjunction with the Digital Marketing Conference.