Mobile marketing was, for a very long time, the next big thing. At the end of each year, marketing gurus would confidently predict that the next year would be all about the mobile. But 2002 passed, as did 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, and nothing much happened. There was the occasional SMS campaign but little to justify all the hype. This may explain why, when mobile marketing finally did take off in 2009, many people missed it. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in 2009 mobile ad spend grew by 32 per cent to £37.6m, and then there were all the mobile websites, the SMS campaigns, the mobile coupons, the mobile games and, of course, the apps.
It was the arrival of the smartphone that caused this explosion of interest in mobile marketing. Smartphones allowed consumers to get online quickly and reliably, and then to interact with websites much as they would on their computers. It was a profound change, and one which no marketer could afford to ignore. And few did. 'Two years ago we were selling the concept of mobile marketing,' says Evan Krauss, executive vice-president at mobile company Shazam. 'Now everyone gets that, and we're selling the concept of Shazam.'
So in what ways are leading brands using mobile marketing? And how will this fast-moving area change in the coming months?
THE MOBILE WEBSITE
For most companies, the first step in mobile marketing has been to develop a mobile version of their website. By mid-2009, Martin Jobin, interactive marketing manager at Infiniti, Nissan's luxury car marque, had noticed that more and more people were arriving at the company's website via a mobile phone. 'We'd been talking about mobile marketing for five years or so, but we'd never had any compelling reason to take action,' he says. 'But with so many people accessing our site through their mobiles, and not being able to view it properly, as it was designed to be accessed on a computer, we saw we had to do something.' Jobin brought in mobile marketing agency Tullo Marshall Warren, and asked them to develop a mobile version of the website. Now, with the mobile site fully up and running, the company has around 21,000 people accessing it every year, and, interestingly, while visitors to the main site remain for an average of four minutes, they stay for an average of 12 minutes on the mobile site.
Indeed, that is one of the most compelling aspects of mobile website marketing. One might expect people to have less time to browse mobile sites, but the opposite seems to be true. We use the mobile internet when we are killing time, so it offers an outstanding opportunity for companies to market to a captive audience. Despite this, Jobin had to work hard to persuade his colleagues that it was a worthwhile investment. 'That was the greatest challenge,' he says. 'Seven or eight years ago I had to fight to convince people that websites were a good idea. Then I was having the same conversations about mobile sites. Once it was up and running, though, everyone rapidly saw the benefits.'
THE MOBILE APP
Harriet Williams, strategy and online marketing controller at Debenhams, found that the best way to get colleagues on board with her mobile marketing plans was to run a trial. 'There's so little data out there about what works and what doesn't in mobile marketing that very often the only way to get started is to trial something,' she explains. 'If it works, roll it out. If it doesn't, try something else.' The retailer's online panel of 15,000 shoppers had for some time been mentioning how often their local shops used text messages to tell them about special offers, events in-store and so on, so she was convinced that Debenhams needed to start using SMS marketing. A small trial confirmed that she was right: the text messages produced a clear uplift in the number of shoppers in a particular store or taking advantage of a particular promotion.
So, last summer Debenhams began a full SMS marketing campaign. Because SMS marketing can be particularly intrusive, Williams stresses that her team is careful not to overwhelm shoppers with too many messages, sending no more than one per month. 'The campaign has been a great success,' she reports. 'We'll be increasing the amount we do in 2011 and, in conjunction with our marketing partner, Neolane, we'll be doing more to personalise the messages.'
The success of that campaign encouraged Debenhams to develop a mobile app. For many, these are the future of mobile marketing, and it was certainly a hit among Debenhams shoppers. It allows them to buy online, to locate stores, even to scan in bar codes in-store. In the first week of its release it was downloaded 75,000 times, and went to top spot in the lifestyle app charts. Williams reports that sales have more than paid for the development cost of the app.
Debenhams is not alone in discovering that apps are more than toys. British Airways has recently rolled out a popular customer app, and Phil Mundy, director of mobile at digital agency Twentysix points to the recent iPhone app from VW. 'It let users race a Golf GTI,' he says. 'One hundred-and-seventy-five cars were sold to players of the app. That's $4m in revenue.'
THE MOBILE AD
Not everyone is convinced that apps are the future of the market. Some believe that they will in time be phased out as the mobile internet grows in popularity, and mobile marketing will adopt a model more akin to that of traditional marketing, where brands pay to advertise on prime media space. Some brands are already doing this to good effect.
For example, last October, Hotels.com began running mobile ads in the UK, Denmark and Norway to promote its mobile website and a 'Welcome Rewards' campaign, which offers consumers one free night of accommodation for every ten nights booked. It based its decision to do this on some compelling research data: according to Euromonitor, 34 per cent of smartphone users access the mobile internet to search for travel information, 29 per cent check reservations and 25 per cent book rooms with their devices. These adverts produced click-through rates of 0.68 per cent in Denmark, 0.57 per cent in Norway and 0.72 per cent in the UK, and Hotels.com reports that traffic on its mobile website has increased since it started the campaign. There are a growing number of companies offering advertising services in the mobile arena and we can expect to see increased interest in the future.
THE MOBILE COUPON
However, for many the most exciting aspect of mobile marketing, and the one that has already started to produce significant results, is couponing. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the shift over the past few years in cinema visiting habits. While in the past Friday or Sunday took second spot behind Saturday as the favoured day for a trip to the cinema, the startling success of Orange Wednesdays has put them into third and fourth spots.
'This major cultural shift shows how well mobile can work,' says David Pearson, director of movie marketing company Filmology. 'Consumers find the mechanics of voucher code texting easy to use and it's straightforward for the cinema to administer. The mass take-up of smart phones, however, looks set to revolutionise this process further with the box office simply scanning the recipient's mobile phone screen.
'Orange is not the only brand to have discovered the potential of mobile coupons. During the summers of 2009 and 2010, Coca-Cola GB ran its 'Gimme Credit' promotion on bottles and cans of Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite. With each purchase consumers received a unique code that could be redeemed by submitting an SMS short code in return for 50p mobile phone credit. Tens of thousands of consumers participated.
MOVING FORWARDS
While there is much that is already happening in the world of mobile marketing, it is worth noting that not every new idea gains traction in this field. As Phil Mundy points out: 'Bluetooth never really took off, and the security on iPhones and BlackBerries prevents them from using it, so I doubt it has much of a future. Multimedia messages are also something of an also ran — how often do you receive an MMS from anyone except your mobile operator?'
So, what is likely to take off in the next two years? Many commentators point to location-based services, such as the much-hyped augmented reality. This allows you to point your camera phone at say a shop, and to see on-screen what offers are available in that shop. Debenhams is already trialling the related service, Vouchercloud, which allows users to search for offers and promotions within a set radius of their current location.
Others believe that the rise of the iPad and Samsung Galaxy will force more and more brands to look beyond the ubiquitous iPhone app. Indeed, it is predicted that by 2012 Android will be the leading mobile operating system in the world, and so advertisers will increasingly turn their attention to opportunities on that platform.
Then, of course, there is social media. The integration of social media and mobile has already begun with the likes of Facebook Places, but we can expect to see a rush for social media services that are designed for users on the move. These will create yet more marketing opportunities.
'There are a lot of factors coming together that will make 2011 an exciting one for brands and agencies that recognise the opportunities presented by mobile,' enthuses David Pearson.
'The new generation of powerful smartphones and tablets will help the industry achieve the growth that has been promised the last few years. This, combined with more location-based applications and services that appeal to users on the move, means that 2012 will truly see the industry come of age.'
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