6.7 Mobile Marketing Campaigns

Mobile marketing has decided advantages over older marketing approaches: it's cost effective, targeted, scalable, personal, shareable, portable, flexible, interactive, immediate, measurable, effective, actionable, repeatable and 'fun'.

Mobile marketing is increasingly employed by large companies. BMW achieved a 30% conversion rate on snow tires in 2008 though customized MMS messages. Starbucks' 2009 mobile loyalty campaign in Mexico experienced a 60% redemption rate on the coupons offered. A UK 'Virgin Festival' got the word out by encouraging users to download a mobile survival kit, and then sign up for text messaging when featured bands went on stage. {1} {3}

Mobile use seems natural: every minute, besides making and receiving calls, users are:

• Accessing news and information.
• Following the latest celebrity gossip
• Checking the weather.
• Looking up addresses and finding directions.
• Buying products, images and ringtones.
• Receiving coupons and promotional discounts from their favorite stores.
• Playing games.
• Listening to music and watching movies.
• Responding to their favorite brand's messages.
• Supporting movements and political candidates.
• Donating money.
• Socializing with friends and marketers.
• Updating friends and family with their locations and activities.

Requirements

Mobile marketing is not for all companies, however. It requires:

1. Considerable resources: planning, money, and manpower.
2. Clear objectives.
3. Repeated testing, that the technical aspects function, and staff are ready to handle the response.
4. Specific design, namely:
   a. 'creative' page (enticing visitors to click through and/or sign up).
   b. landing page ( promoting a specific product, service, or application).
   c. effective targeting.
   d. careful analysis of results.
5. A decision whether to use on-deck or off-deck services. In on-deck web access the carrier operates through a branded portal (WAP deck) filled with content supplied through deals the carrier has made with news organizations, record labels, TV networks, etc. (Carriers earn revenue by earning a cut of, or charging for subscriptions to, premium content on their decks.)
6. Use of a mobile advertising networks that can plan, conduct and analyze an advertising program. A short list (check the services and policies, which vary considerably):

AdMob BuzzCity Itsmy Third Screen Media ZestADZ 4th Screen Advertising AditOn Amobee Celltick Digital SIDEBAR Frog2Frog Ad Infuse

Admoda Decktrade Google AdSense and AdWords Medio MobileNow Mojiva JumpTap Yahoo! Mobile Add2Phone GoldSpot Media Microsoft Mobile Advertising Utarget Unanimis

7. Use of a mobile phone application to help market the product/services. The company may:

• Get itself listed by the application,
• Develop its own application, or
• Employ one of the many mobile application development companies, e.g:
  • Air2Web
  • Gateway Mobitech Research & Development
  • Macronimous.com
  • Plazmic Inc.
  • Endeavour
  • ValueLabs
  • 724 Solutions

8. Detailed tracking, certainly of:

• Messages sent
• Messages received
• Links clicked (if applicable)
• Conversion from links (if applicable)

Second-generation iPhones are equipped with GPS features. Of the tracking services available, Admob, Bango and Mobilytics are sophisticated, Omniture and Webtrends well-established, and Google Analytics is free and often all that's needed. For tracking with a mobile device, consider ExactTarget, mobileStorm, Flurry and Pivotal Veracity. For tracking customer loyalty, consider Unica, mobileStorm and Responsys.

Resources

1. Mobile Web Design For Dummies by Janine Warner and David LaFontaine. For Dummies. September 2010.
2. Beginning Smartphone Web Development: Building JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax-based Applications for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia S60 by Gail Frederick. Springer-Verlag. January 2010.
3. Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps by Brian Fling. O'Reilly Media. August 2009.
4. The Business of iPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps that Succeed by Dave Wooldridge and Michael Schneider. Apress. March 2010.
5. Starting an iPhone Application Business For Dummies by Aaron Nicholson, Joel Elad and Damien Stolarz. For Dummies. October 2009.
6. Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform by Ed Burnette. Pragmatic Bookshelf. July 2010.
7. iPhone and iPad Apps Marketing: Secrets to Selling Your iPhone and iPad Apps by Jeffrey Hughes. Que. April 2010.
8. Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are by Cindy Crum. Que. February 2010.
9. MobiForge. Many useful tutorials, free on registering.

Questions

1. Draw up a marketing campaign using mobile phones.
2. Compare the services of three mobile application development companies.
3. Describe in detail the tracking services now available.

Sources and Further Reading

1. Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps by Brian Fling. 336 pp. O'Reilly Media. August 2009.
2. Beginning Smartphone Web Development: Building JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax-based Applications for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia S60 by Gail Frederick. Springer-Verlag. January 2010.
3. Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are by Cindy Crum. Que. February 2010.
4. The Internet Retailer Survey: Mobile Commerce Retailers diving into mobile commerce are coming up with significant sales by Mark Brohan. Internet Retailer. September 2011.