April 2009

Mobile marketing update
Here’s why mobile should be part
of your 2009 marketing plans By Deborah Hall

Marketers who have been monitoring the mobile buzz for the past couple of years are probably familiar with a reasonable rationale for pursuing a mobile marketing campaign. This article will offer some new insights and opportunities that this exciting and dynamic space currently presents. The most compelling reason is the dramatic increase not only in mobile devices, but the engagement that’s happening on them. Next is the mobile telephone’s value and importance in people’s lives. Think of it this way, if you left your mobile phone at home, would you turn around to retrieve it? Yes, you and the majority of people polled on this question, probably would. And finally, trends such as social networking and the frequent updates involved in managing a profile on the fly, all spark even more usage on mobile devices to do status updates, connect with friends and keep up to date while on the go.

Figure 1: The handshake between mobile and online calls to action

The launch of Apple’s iPhone last year in Canada was a turning point for mobile engagement and browsing habits. The mobile Web and application development are the next version of Web browsing on devices. As we explore in this article, there are many ways that marketers can engage consumers in the mobile channel: from SMS campaigns to the mobile Web and applications, or a combination of several tactics to complete a one-to-one mobile strategy.

SMS
As with any other channel, when beginning a mobile campaign the logical question is: “Who are we looking to reach and what are their habits?” A February 2009 Nielsen study indicates that US mobile phone users receive and send more text messages than the total number of phone calls overall. Moreover, the Nielson study augmented by data from Limbos Mobile shows that there is significant growth in text messaging outside the traditional “texting” demographic (typically 18 to 24 years of age). Specifically, this study indicates that 72 percent of mobile users ages 25 to 49 use text messaging and an astonishing 53 percent of US users responding to short code campaigns are 35 years of age and older. Given these statistics, testing an SMS campaign to complement other tactics as a way of reaching your audience seems like a no-brainer.

If you are looking to deploy a cross carrier SMS campaign in Canada, these campaigns are delivered through a short code. A short code is a series of five to six digits (288288 or 101010 etc.) that allows users to text in from any carrier and receive a message of up to 136 characters back. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) administers and enforces these short codes and there are more than 400 CSC programs active in Canada at any given time. The CWTA provides a Web site: www.txt.ca, where you can find a list of aggregators and mobile suppliers to work with and the process for applying for a short code is fully explained.

All these statistics certainly provide evidence that the audience is using text messaging, but the more important question for many direct marketers is specifically how the mobile channel helps deliver more return on investment for campaigns. Since this question represents a fairly broad sweep of marketing activity, let’s use an example to illustrate the possibilities.

Call to action
Let’s say that you have an integrated campaign and you’re a car manufacturer targeting an increase in test drives in the Guelph region by ten percent. Let’s also assume this campaign involves media such as direct mail, local radio and online. In each medium, the call to action would invite the prospect to book a test drive with the local dealership for a chance to win the vehicle of his or her choice. Here are some ways that mobile could contribute and deliver ROI for your campaign.
Include a mobile call to action to complement your radio buy, print ad and any other media outlet. For example, Text “DRIVE” to 288288. This would allow you to engage with users immediately when they see your ad. Prospects who text the keyword into the short code could receive more information from their local dealer, and once they have taken the test drive, could be entered into a contest with a chance to win a car. (Prospects don’t have to go back to their desktop PC to enter the contest and they can be sent a URL to remind them later to visit the Web site.) The benefit of including this mobile call to action is that you can track behaviour by unique keyword. In fact, you could assign a different keyword: DRIVE, FAST, SPORT etc. to each medium. This would allow you to measure how well each is converting the promotion in real time.

An interesting question arises from this example. Would the mobile call to action steal the thunder of the online call to action that could be included in these media choices? The opportunity here for clever marketers is to deliver a handshake between your mobile and online calls to action. What does this handshake look like? See Figure 1.

When consumers enter their mobile number and carrier on the Web site as they profile themselves it raises the question, “Why should I build a mobile database and how do I go about building one?”

Database strategy
Since you can’t purchase a mobile database as you can with e-mail databases, there must be a strategy to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to collect the information and act on it appropriately. The opportunity of creating a mobile database is the ability to target customers on the go with offers and opportunities. A special sale for VIP members or a last minute clearance opportunity would be great events to promote via the SMS channel. Imagine you are a retailer who sends out special offers weekly to your e-mail database and every now and again you have inventory to move on a Thursday at 4pm for a special rate. What other medium could afford you the instant ability to promote one-to-one with a consumer that is already predisposed to your brand? The requisite infrastructure for executing the proper capture is to leverage a short code and send a response text message as soon as the user has opted in on the Web site to verify their interest in participating.

The handshake between Web and mobile allows marketers to benefit from the immediacy of the mobile channel and the longer form desktop Web site. Emerging between these two mediums are two areas of opportunity: the mobile Web and mobile applications. The mobile Web is an optimized version of your Web site that can either feature a .mobi extension or a m.newcoolcar.com URL. Mobile applications are native “widgets” that are downloaded to the desktop of your handset. Mobile applications are most recently made famous by Apple’s iPhone and on the existing RIM platform, Google Android, Windows Mobile and Java based handsets.

Opportunities
There are several opportunities presented here, starting with the mobile Web as a channel. Optimizing your current Web presence to ensure folks that browse to your Web site from their mobile device have a decent experience is really step one. Anyone who has tried to access a Web site on their phone with 3 point type and large graphics knows why this would be important. After this, making sure you are offering your consumers the appropriate tools to find the most basic “contact us” information, all the way up to dynamic information, is especially important to companies targeting audiences that spend a lot of time on smartphone devices. Once your mobile Web presence is in place, marketers can drive additional interest and traffic by purchasing advertising on other mobile properties such as The Weather Network, The Score, and other mobile ad networks. This is like purchasing an online media buy but the CTRs that these ads are garnering are closer to two percent—not 0.02 percent. In addition to performance, targeting opportunities are very interesting. For example, if you are looking to speak to users in the Guelph region, you can target mobile users that are looking at Guelph weather and traffic information on The Weather Network. If you are looking for Maple Leaf fans or Montreal Canadiens fans, you can target users who profile those teams on The Score mobile properties. Advertisers who exploit these channels coming out of the gates, will be a part of the increased CTR and conversions these channels are offering.

Mobile applications are specific to the smartphone audience and they can be anything from a game to a dynamic video player or stock/sports update tool. Advertising is also available on these mobile applications. Content holders and marketers can use these applications as tools for further engaging their audience, just as they do online.

Mobile advertising campaign overview:
The first question when developing a mobile Web campaign is usually “How many of my users are accessing my site on a mobile device?” and “What mobile device are they using?” Unfortunately, this carrier data isn’t public information in the US and Canada. What we do have is a published report by mobile advertising firm AdMob for American and International data from which we can extrapolate to derive some insights on Canadian mobile Web statistics.

This information should be subdivided into two categories: 1.) Mobile Web surfing on all mobile devices, and 2.) Mobile Web surfing on Smartphone devices. Users of BlackBerry, iPhone and other Smartphone devices realize how much easier it is to access their e-mail and online content. Statistically, Smartphone users do the lion’s share of mobile Web surfing. According to AdMob (Jan 2009) for Category 1 in the US, mobile Web surfing was dominated by Apple (29 percent), followed by Motorola (19 percent), Samsung (15 percent), LG (six percent) and RIM (six percent) to round out the Top 5.

In the second category, all smartphone devices, according to AdMob (Jan 2009) in the US, mobile Web surfing on smartphones breaks out as follows: iPhone (51 percent), RIM OS (19 percent), Windows Mobile OS (14 percent), Palm OS (8 percent), Hiptop OS (3 percent), Android (3 percent), Symbian OS (2 percent).

How can marketers make the right decisions for their brands in this new medium? How can you make sure to take advantage of ROI and direct marketing opportunities? In the short term, without a doubt the biggest reach for marketers is with traditional SMS campaigns that can do a multiple of things. SMS can be complemented with a voice call reminder or other kind of engaging follow up. For example, a mobile coupon that cashiers can enter at checkout with a special offer. The most important component of a coupon program is making sure that the cashier and point of sale staff are aware of the program. Then, if the coupon is delivered via SMS, there can be numbers that are entered that can “synch” with the checkout so users don’t need a fancy barcode or QR code scanner to make redemption possible.

The answer to the question of ROI will be different for each marketing campaign. What we do know is that mobile is a “greenfield” opportunity for direct marketers given the channel’s one-to-one nature. Let’s not forget that the mobile space is much less crowded than the online space yet it can be elegantly added to a social networking or online program. The first marketers to embrace this new ecosystem will be amply rewarded. So, if you have been waiting to add mobile elements to your campaign and are looking for new ways to measure your investment, now is the time!

Deborah Hall, an industry expert who leverages both online and mobile digital technologies to produce marketing results, was chair of the CMA Mobile Marketing Conference in February. She is also managing director of WEB2MOBILE, where she works with companies to create mobile strategies, develop new business models, and help build the infrastructures required to reach new audiences in the mobile space. Deborah is a graduate of Queen’s University School of Mechanical Engineering and also holds an Executive MBA from the Queen’s School of Business. She can be reached at deb@Web2mobile.ca or by telephone at 416-230-7620.