Wednesday, October 19, 2005

MMM Mobile Marketing I'm Loving It

This is an exciting time for advertisers. What?

Tivo and PVRs are killing the 30 second TV ad, the Do Not Call List put a major hurting in the telemarketing industry and pop-up/spam blockers are throttling Internet advertising.

Yes, I know, advertisers are happy with Google and the methods they offer for Internet advertising, but there is a much better way than hoping the right keywords get entered.

Why should I be excited as an advertiser. Because if you’re creative and provide a desired service to a consumer, you will be able to reach them directly anytime and anywhere, on the mobile phone. There won’t be a spam filter, or a secretary screening the call, your message will be received immediately.

The Do Not Call List for telemarketing took away the “permission” that was given to all solicitors. Permission is gone and you won't get it back. As more and more people sign up for this list, the number of potential advertising targets decreases and advertisers LOSE PERMISSION.

On the other hand, there’s an enormous database that will be tapped by an advertiser but they will need to GET PERMISSION.

How do advertisers get permission to advertise on the most valuable 4 square inches of real estate? That’s a problem most brands and mobile marketing companies are working, but it’s not that hard.

In order to get on my phone, you need to give me something.

I watch TV programs for free (well kind of) and in return you advertise your products every few minutes. I read many online newspapers/magazines for free, and in return you display ads. We both get something from this.

With the mobile phone, you will have to give me something if you ever have a chance of advertising to me on it. The brands/advertisers that know what consumers want on their mobile, should be the ones that get permission quickly.

It will have to evolve from just contests and ringtones too. That method of mobile marketing is great for initiation, but that isn't building a relationship with your customer.

One of the best examples I have seen is from People Magazine. I signed up for their free celebrity text alerts and they provide advertising on my phone when they send them.

Here’s what I see as other examples that should get implemented.

FOXNEWS offers breaking alerts and advertiser could pay for the ability to sponsor.
Charles Schwab offers free real time stock quotes/ news.
Advertisers pay for traffic alerts sent to your mobile phone.

The key point with mobile marketing is that in order to get permission to market to me, an advertiser must provide something that I will find of use on my phone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly - fast forward - the best trade for the best service = NEOM! Randell

Anonymous said...

The key to mobile marketing is three fold, it must be: non-intrusive, opt-in, and created for the mobile device. You can not make a connection with a perspective customer if the first thing your message does is upset them because they are being charged to receive an ad. I agree with your sponsor sms alerts; I think it is a great way to reach the mobile consumer by taking advantage of a requested piece of information. I do not think that mass SMS should be allowed. Mophap works in the WAP internet space. Our goal is to replace the subscription model that many companies are using with an ad supported solution. Mophap enables companies to fill the blank loading screens with interactive ads, we do not increase the load times yet allow companies to leverage it. Users can choose to click on the ads if they would like to hear more about a product or campaign. If they choose they can have a sms message sent to phone, email message sent to inbox or be directly connected to a call center. If the user chooses not to click on the ad it automatically disappears as the requested content page is ready to load. Increasing the possible revenue in the mobile internet will enable more companies to provide sites in this space.

No Name said...

I tried to go to MopHap's site for more info but had no luck.

There are couple things I have a problem with.

1. Downloading. I don't see users using their cell to download applications. Surfing, texting yes, but downloading no. I could be wrong on this.

You might have another issue too when someone elects to download and sees an ad. The first thing I would think, "this ad is slowing down the speed of my download".

The last thing I want to see or click on, is an ad when I'm waiting for my goodie.

2. What happens when 3g or Wi-Fi service gets integrated for cell and Net speeds are much quicker.

Will advertisers pay for split second ads?

MopHap sounds like they get permission to advertise by using another product as the OPT-IN device.

Yes you got permission, but what you can do with it, is very limited.

Anonymous said...

Click on the links now. I suggest you visit our demo- http://mophap.com/productdemo.html
This will give you an interactive idea of what we do. We upgraded all of our servers and they are live now, aplogies. In response to your comments and question:

The system is built to allow companies the ability to leverage the blank loading screens that appear as requested content is loading when someone clicks a link on a WAP site. We do not increase the down time, this is the proprietary function of our system. Our ad serving system is built in an ASP model allowing us to serve ads over the most up to date content without any alteration of the WAP sites.
When speeds actually do increase and users choose to upgrade their service so will the richness of content that publishers will be sending to mobiles. We will also be able to display animation in our interstitials. The ad management system that controls the back end arranges the release of the ads, this will help with increased speeds and ad configuration. For example: If a page has an image (photo) it will take longer to load than a text only page. We have the ability to display the interstitial while the image based page is loading and not insert an interstitial while the text page is loading. Obviously the text only pages will load very quickly as the network speeds increase.
The ads are set to display for 4 seconds, this is configured through the system and we do have the ability to alter the timed display. We set the time to allow the advertisers to know exactly what they are paying for. In addition to the interstitial ads we also offer banner and 2-steps, again I direct you to the demo.
How does this affect the consumer? More free content and information available, no subscription fees for every site you wish to access, lower monthly bill charges, fluid experiences. I recently met with a rep from Korea and she was telling me that if a consumer chooses to allow ads (SMS) sent to their mobiles they have greatly reduced monthly phone bills.

I hope that this helps! Question are great, please keep them coming!