By Leigh Andrews

“The future of marketing is about having conversations with customers!” – The Cluetrain Manifesto.

What better way to have conversations with customers than by engaging with them in their personal space – through mobile marketing on their cell phones? Mobile SMS marketing is a semi-new form of marketing, which uses the global communication medium of the cellular phone and SMS and MMS, to get your message across to an increased number of targeted consumers – and this has advanced drastically from the initial ad line at the end of ‘Please Call Me’ SMSes.

Wikipedia defines mobile marketing as “marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a mobile phone”. This is further defined as an example of horizontal telecommunication convergence. Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of the SMS in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia, when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off unsolicited content. The Mobile Marketing Association adds that mobile phones are now used for much more than just voice services, as mobile users also have access to data services such as text messaging, picture messaging and content downloads. Of key importance to marketers is that these channels carry both content and advertising.

According to Intoweb Marketing’s etraffic site, a number of big business companies are starting to recognise the advantages that this marketing medium can provide, such as immediacy, and immense cost savings. Intoweb adds that the emergence of mobile marketing means that more customers can be reached than with traditional advertising methods, as they are targeted directly through their cell phones.

There has been a definite surge in cellular phone technology in South Africa. Mobile marketing trends in the country now reach beyond SMS marketing to encompass marketing on WAP, MXit, Bluetooth, full multimedia Third Generation (3G) services, and mobile TV – which is sure to be popular during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. While expensive bandwidth demands creative solutions, this is definitely an industry on the rise.

The mobile marketing landscape

Wikipedia explains that mobile viral marketing is where content is passed from person to person or through push campaigns; while location-based services allow custom advertising to be sent to cellphone subscribers, based on their specific location. Mobile marketing via infrared has all but stopped, due to infrared’s limited range, having been taken over by marketing via Bluetooth. This is widely accepted by users, as it is permission-based. Mobile web marketing is another form of mobile marketing, this time involving advertising on web pages specifically meant for access by mobile devices. This links to in-game mobile marketing, which is when brands deliver messages in 3D multiplayer and social networking games– which are not necessarily subliminal. The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) provides a set of guidelines and standards that give the recommended format for the presentation of mobile marketing ads.

According to the Dave Duarte of the UCT Graduate School of Business, mobile marketing is: “the use of the mobile medium as a communications and entertainment channel between a brand and an end-user. Mobile marketing is the only personal channel enabling spontaneous, direct, interactive and/or targeted communications, any time, any place”.

Mobile Marketing is now used by marketers in every sector, targeting audiences of all ages, reflecting the wide penetration and use of the medium that now prevails.

Mobile marketing campaigns

The Mobile Marketing Association points out that as each cell phone typically has one unique user, unlike with mass media such as TV and radio, the mobile phone is a specifically targeted communication channel, where users are highly engaged with the content. The mobile channel therefore delivers excellent campaign effectiveness and response levels compared to other media. Mobile is also ideal as part of ‘fully integrated cross-media campaign plans’, including TV, print, radio, outdoor, cinema, online and direct mail. There are numerous case studies of successful integrated campaigns which combine mobile marketing with traditional forms of advertising, such as newspaper, radio, and TV advertising. In South Africa, companies such as Ster-Kinekor, Engen, Peugeot, Quiksilver, TV Plus and Big Concerts have all run mobile campaigns targeting the youth through MXit.

According to J Nortje, Marketing Director of eTraffic, “The mobile marketing solution is a powerful and extremely sophisticated web-based tool, specifically designed for the easy creation and management of SMS campaigns.” A major benefit of mobile marketing, as mentioned by the MMA, is that each campaign type can link to additional mobile content or channels, as well as to complementary traditional media. Mobile marketing therefore provides a powerful instant and interactive response path.

Hans Mol, Grapevine Mobile’s Media Director, adds: “Mobile marketing relies heavily on the fact that there are millions of subscribers which potentially gives the brand massive reach.

However, in order to achieve the desired objective of your mobile campaign, you need to ensure that you have the following: the correct audience, the correct message and the correct incentive, which has to be underpinned by the correct technology. If you have these elements identified and modelled effectively, then you are empowered to deliver successful mobile marketing.”

The mobile marketing future

“In addition to television and the personal computer, the most powerful future technology for the digital citizen is the mobile phone,” says Adam Clayton Powell III, vice-provost of the University of Southern California, speaking during his presentation on Technology for the Digital Citizen at Highway Africa in Grahamstown South Africa. He adds that for the digital citizen using a mobile phone, keypad and screen size can be an issue – particularly when viewing advertising messages. Another challenge, especially in the third world, is the limited bandwidth available for the digital citizen to send and receive data, which has a large impact on the effectiveness of mobile marketing. This notwithstanding, Powell III concludes: “The future is definitely one cell phone per child.”

Mobile marketing therefore has a very important role to play in the future of marketing.

Resources:

*For South African mobile marketing case studies, visit MyBeat interactive, an HBD/ Mark Shuttleworth company.
*Sign up for Clickatell’s Free Mobile Marketing Guide.