Mobile Marketing Archive

Today Retailwire.com highlighted a March 12, 2010 post by a firm called Compete about its research into consumer acceptance of various mobile advertising tactics.  I thought this was worth mentioning for a number of reasons, but mainly to highlight the distinction between mobile advertising and mobile engagement – which are really two separate ideas that get co-mingled in this case.

For retailers in particular, it’s important to separate engagement from advertising; the former is interactive by definition, the latter more static/one way communication, even when targeting a particular demographic.

With respect to mobile ad acceptance by consumers, the research found:

“…we saw consumers were most interested in receiving grocery coupons (36 percent), scanable barcodes (29 percent), offers to save and pursue at leisure (26 percent), movie theater offers (26 percent), and ads via SMS when going by a retailer with a promotion / coupon (21 percent).”

The means by which these “advertisements” are delivered to mobile consumers is typically via SMS text message interactions initiated as part of customer engagement strategies.  Engagement itself is the real opportunity presented by mobile channel marketing, which the research also highlights as shown in the chart included earlier in this post.  The research dovetails with a diagram we have been using (at right) to illustrate the personal nature of the mobile channel relative to other advertising and marketing methods that also present fewer opportunities for engagement.

Be it coupons or special offers, these calls to action should be viewed not as advertisements, but rather part of engagement strategies targeting consumers receptive and available to receive them in ways not possible in other media.

Today on my iPhone, browsing news on an application designed by Interactive Mediums for Newser, I came across this interesting article about a “Minority Report”-like mobile marketing trial taking place in Japan that will soon be brought to the U.S.

If not familiar with the movie reference, futuristic billboards presented personalized ads based on your actual identify as you walked by them.  The trial taking place in Japan is similar in that it features facial recognition capabilities to understand age and gender, and use these as inputs into personalized advertisements.

Although an interesting, if not very exciting marketing advancement, the article raises logical privacy concerns that arise with anything which consumers have little control over.  In this case, identities remain private and the scans are not saved following delivery of personalized messages.

Whatever form this takes in the U.S. or elsewhere, you can be certain that it will be followed by integration with location aware smartphones so that consumers may opt into being recognized and presented with personalized offers and messages based on actual identity, not just age or gender.

Preparing for this future now, marketers would be wise to develop mobile relationships with their customers using commonly available SMS text message marketing capabilities as offered by companies like Interactive Mediums.   Doing so successfully is equally a function of adhering to opt in standards which will not likely change even in the face of advancements like intelligent billboards.

This March 12, 2009 article on eMarketer.com titled, “Marketers Buzz About ROI,” is notable for what it doesn’t say – which is that mobile marketing is the tactic most important to executives subject to a recent survey.

As you can see in the accompanying chart, others in the list – from ROI to customer satisfaction – are attributes of marketing’s charter.  This supports what we have written about many times before – that mobile marketing applied strategically can underpin, power and drive results for a variety of initiatives.  With ROI the topmost concern, the measurability of mobile marketing programs surely contributes to its prominence in the list, even above social media.

Since every business is unique we find it helpful to perform a simple exercise designed to highlight the most immediate way mobile can create the highest value, as quickly as possible.  You can read about it here.

In October of 2009 we mentioned a great example of mobile as part of a casino’s customer engagement strategy.  Good case studies are easy to remember, so I was not surprised to see this article today on MobileMarketer.com about where this business is evolving its approach to mobile.

I thought this was worth highlighting to show that mobile is not an “all or nothing” proposition, but that a phased approach to engaging customers in the mobile channel often makes the most sense.

Within the casino itself, mobile gaming is being introduced via proprietary mobile devices from a firm called eDeck.  These will provide on the go access to a variety of traditional games such that patrons can enjoy gambling wherever they may be within the property.  It’s an example of “micro mobile marketing,” in that customers are confined to a particular space that lends itself to mobile enablement in this fashion.  The upside for the casino will surely be more revenue while offering another channel of interaction with its customers.  Those two objectives are common among leading mobile marketers, whether their customers are more or less confined to a particular space or not.

While the article does not say so, this statement suggests the casino’s prior efforts around SMS text messaging programs to create an opt-in database of mobile subscribers will be used to help promote the new offering:

“Hard Rock will target its existing database and create eDeck awareness throughout the property.”

Other casinos will probably follow suit, or perhaps develop smartphone applications offering a similar experience in order to reach a greater number of potential customers than with a limited number of proprietary devices.

In October of last year, we highlighted news of retailer Wet Seal’s mobile marketing efforts as “best practice” by effectively mapping their strategy to the mobile channel in a manner similar to one we prescribe at Interactive Mediums.  The company continues to build on that success, as outlined today on MobileMarketer.com in an article titled, “Wet Seal exec: Mobile drives retail and online sales.”

From SMS text messaging, to mobile application to a mobile website, Wet Seal has implemented a program which stitches these mobile marketing tactics together in such a way to engage their customer base and drive sales.  SMS has outperformed email in direct marketing tests by the retailer, who uses text primarily to engage customers with in store contests and promotions geared toward learning more about them and drive other mobile interactions.  A mobile website simplified relative to the full online version and optimized to facilitate purchases as well as an “outfit” configurator smartphone application round out the current approach.  Planned projects include mobile purchases paired with in-store pickup scheduling, mobile gift cards and social media integration.

Key lessons others can learn from cited include:

“First, get started early to benefit from early interactions and then fine-tune strategy and tactics.

Second, customers like to choose the way they want to shop. So offer them as many options as possible.

Third, extend the mobile experiences across channels – online and in-store – and optimize. Mobile is often the bridge between other channels.

Fourth, focus on core competency and technology to create excitement within the target customer base.

Finally, integrate customer feedback.”

Wet Seal is among the most progressive users of mobile marketing and their aggressive approach may intimidate those less experienced.  Paired with the urgency to begin competing for consumer mobile mindshare, and you have a recipe for stress.  Interactive Mediums’ platform and professional services are geared around helping customers move rapidly into mobile in a “right sized” fashion and grow over time.  Mapping your business and marketing strategy to the mobile channel is a good first step.

At first glance, this article yesterday on DMNews.com suggests the one area of mobile advertising thus far overlooked – audio – represents an untapped opportunity for marketers to reach their customers in ways other than text messaging, mobile applications, social media or mobile web browsing.

An internet radio network has supposedly created an advertising product allowing marketers to target listeners with audio commercials in line with station content, according to geography, demographics and device.  Radio advertising tends to be a mass market medium, so this appears to offer marketers the chance to target different audio messages to various listener segments.

Keep in mind, however, that the opportunity for marketers is limited to whatever content the network provides.  The use of mobile devices for audio in general is on the decline and audio messages lack the direct response element of a text message that incorporates a live link to a mobile website or application.

Radio stations have the opportunity to offer a platform for one to one marketing on a completely different scale via text messaging, as outlined in this recent Interactive Mediums paper titled, “Transforming Listeners into Dollars.”  Radio stations can use text message interactions as a means of building out profiles of their audience to offer highly segmented ad units which can drive more revenue.

With respect to the mobile channel, radio stations and their advertisers alike need to separate the notions of offering the usual audio commercial on a device from targeting relevant offers and calls to action via text messaging.  No matter how targeted audio ads become, they cannot facilitate the capture of audience demographics and lack the direct response component of text messaging.

Today on Brandweek.com, an article clearly written for the advertising professional, claims, “Despite Promise, Mobile Ads Come Up Short.”  The gist here is that despite big bets placed by Google and Apple, as well high response rates, mobile advertising is falling short of expectations.

These expectations include richer, more interactive ad formats necessary for when the “novelty” factor contributing to high response rates for simple text links wears off.

“…mobile will only convince marketers to make serious commitments if it moves beyond the focus on scale with standardized, run-of-the-mill units.  The risk is mobile will follow the same path as the PC Internet and become dominated by direct marketers rather than advertisers used to creating demand via TV ads.”

That statement stands out among all in the article as pointing to a reality advertising professionals should adjust to sooner than later to ensure a seat at the mobile marketing table.  And that is mobile already is an extension of the PC internet, especially on smartphones, and is perhaps the ultimate direct response platform ever conceived given immediate, “on the go” integration with location based services and the mobile web.

Even if, and when, ad units become more standardized, traditional views of interactive advertising will struggle in the face of strategies geared toward calling consumers to action in-line with their behavior.  Today and for the foreseeable future, that has less to do slickly produced, screen hogging visuals and more with relevant messaging integrated wisely with other mobile channels.

All retailers to varying degrees are dabbling in mobile couponing as a means of engaging their customers, driving foot traffic and ultimately selling more product.  The technologies employed vary from a numeric code delivered via SMS text message through actual digitized bar codes that render on a mobile device for scanning at the point of sale.

Each of these options today represents a compromise over traditional printed coupons that most point of sale systems recognize.  Coupon codes requiring manual entry lengthen checkout time and can be error prone while mobile device displays cannot always render codes compatible with POS scanners.

Despite these limitations, retailers are pressing forward to take advantage of the value presented by location-based marketing.  Yet to really unleash the value of mobile couponing, it must be ubiquitous and require a minimal change to retailer operational processes in order to be cost effective.  That’s the thought which came to mind when I read a February 19, 2010 item at DMNews.com, titled “Provision Interactive Technologies teams with Ping Mobile for in-store mobile campaigns.”

The article describes a new offering as follows:

“Marketers can create an out-of-home/mobile campaign in a mall, airport, stadium or other public venue, and consumers can respond to the call to action on the signage by texting in. Coupons, tickets, vouchers and other printed items then become available from Provision’s 3D Media Centers, which consumers can print the coupons at the kiosks and redeem.”

Rather than focus redemption around legacy POS systems, this approach represents a value added intermediary that could be positioned in retail environments in a standalone fashion – the quantity of stations limited only by space and budget.  The solution is described as optimal for “malls, airports and other public locations,” but should have equal or greater value when resident in a single retail environment — especially for large retailers with hundreds or thousands of locations unable to upgrade all POS systems en masse.

This solution also alleviates the need to worry about technology and compatibility issues, and focus instead on creative ways of engaging customers with the most relevant offers.  Interactive Mediums’ Customer Engagement Platform features a variety of pre-packaged engagement actions designed just for this purpose.

The news seems to be increasingly populated with stories about 2D or “quick response” codes used as mobile calls to action.  As this article points out today on MobileMarketer.com, “bar codes offer a shortcut to accessing mobile content, information and mobile commerce.”  Considering the simplistic analogy to a shortcut, it’s rather amazing Neustar is attempting to solve the reach/incompatibility problem of 2D codes and in so doing add a presumably high growth aspect to their business.

The article outlines how Visa used 2D bar code technology as part of a sweepstakes promotion conducted at the recent Mobile World Congress in Spain.  You can read the specifics but as we mentioned recently here and here, 2D bar codes tend to find the greatest success in highly localized and controlled environments where there is some certainty around consumer handsets capable of reading the codes.

What Neustar wishes to do is offer a “clearinghouse” service so marketers can employ 2D codes without restricting their potential audience.  They plan to do this by standardizing previously incompatible codes across devices and operating systems.  It sounds like a lot of work to enable consumers a “short cut” to redeem information on their mobile devices.

2D bar codes appeal to our visual nature and longtime experience with traditional bar codes such as those scanned at the grocery store.  These codes imply ease of use, as well as data — lots of data about who purchased what product and when.

Marketers considering building sweepstakes or other promotions around 2D bar codes like Visa should consider the ease by which consumers today text a keyword to a shortcode to redeem information or be pointed to a mobile website – the exact same use case as with a 2D bar code.  Not only are you assured universal reach but even more data about the consumer can be obtained since a text interaction is bi-directional and can include a question and answer component in real time.

Marketers should focus less on the technology employed to engage their customers, and more on creating a compelling message or incentive which calls their customers to action — and then evaluate options for packaging and delivering the offer.  Right now marketers appear blinded by the “sexiness” of 2D bar codes, and Neustar is betting a new line of business on it.

2D barcodes and their imitators are likely to be among the biggest failures of 2010, at least among marketers who use these technologies expecting to achieve direct response rates like those of SMS text message programs.  That’s both a prediction and more strongly worded follow up to this recent post of ours regarding services claiming to offer 2D barcode benefits but that are consumable by nearly every mobile phone user.

Those benefits include ease of interaction; simply point your camera-equipped device at a code to have information immediately presented and/or be pointed to a website.  In localized programs outside the U.S. 2D bar codes have proven successful.  However, as pointed out in this very good post, standardization among devices and software (or more accurately, a lack of it) is a gating factor to widespread accessibility by consumers in the U.S.

“…2D barcodes…are pretty cool solutions for specific applications, such as mobile airline boarding passes or advanced inventory management, but not exactly the best of what’s out there for mobile consumer marketing in today’s rapidly changing world of mobile media and brand interaction.  The name of the game is to get as many high-quality customer interactions and conversation engagements as possible with your targeted demographic.  Severely limiting the potential response pool by applying restrictions will simply decrease the success of the campaign.”

Articles like this on ChiefMarketer.com present a different picture that marketers would be wise to balance against the facts on the ground.

The universal nature of SMS text messaging has created an impression that mobile marketing can access anyone, anytime and anywhere but until technologies like 2D bar codes and augmented reality are as “standardized” as SMS, text messaging will remain the defacto method of reaching as many of your target demographic as possible.

In the meantime, hybrid services requiring a consumer to snap a photo and send it via MMS are emerging that ultimately lack the instant gratification of real 2D codes and the universal nature of SMS.  Marketers be warned.

With competition for mobile consumer mindshare reaching a fever pitch, marketers will increasingly face an engagement barrier, even around SMS text message programs.  To break through and achieve their objectives, marketers should evaluate offerings such as Interactive Mediums’ multi-channel mobile customer engagement platform.