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The analysts are almost universally bullish about mobile advertising. Gartner for one says that worldwide the market will be worth in excess of $2.7 billion this year, up from $1.7 billion in 2007.
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Their attention has a price
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Bango says it has seen a four-fold increase in the number of WAP transactions in the US over the last three months, as leading content providers including Gameloft and Dada Entertainment choose to sell their content using Bango’s mobile billing relationships with AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel and Virgin Mobile. This reflects a shift in the way mobile content is sold in the US, says Bango, with WAP billing gaining momentum as the industry realizes the mobile web delivers a superior and safer consumer experience.
Bango notes that content providers can now reach over 130 million US subscribers across all three major US operators using its billing platform. Mobile users can pay for content per download or as a subscription, charging it to their phone bills.
It notes also that key stakeholders in the mobile industry from operators and leading content providers to influential bodies such as the Mobile Marketing Association are supporting WAP billing for mobile content sales. WAP billing offers consumers a safe and transparent payment experience, says Bango. Customers can see the price and conditions of purchase before they click to pay.
“The shift to WAP browse and buy is a solid response to the recent claims of inappropriate charging of consumers,” says Bango SVP of Marketing, Anil Malhotra. “Content providers are adapting to these challenges by using WAP to deliver a clean, clear buying experience for the user. Their businesses also benefit from far low customer service costs and refund levels of less than 0.1%, compared to figures approaching 10-20% where content is purchased with Premium SMS (source: research firm iGillot).”
Massimiliano Pellegrini, CEO of Dada Entertainment, says the mobile web market is booming in the US.
“65% of all new phones purchased are now music-enabled,” says Pellegrini. “WAP billing offers an easy, seamless experience for our Dada.net consumers and fits in well with our overall mobile music strategy.”
And Jean-Sebastien Laverge, US D2C Manager at Gameloft, says that: “WAP billing provides a better consumer experience through its phone recognition system, a better user-flow and a clearer offer, all of which, increases consumer satisfaction and drives more volumes in our off-deck sales.”
There’s more information on Bango WAP billing in the US here.
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Research commissioned mobile marketing technology and services company Velti has found that 79% of UK consumers believe the growth of mobile advertising is inevitable. The survey, which polled more than 1,600 UK mobile phone users about their usage habits, showed that the majority of Britons are starting to accept that mobile marketing and advertising will continue to increase in popularity, but also laid down a clear message for any marketers hoping to make use of the medium: “We want something in return”.
The results of the study showed that, while 80% of UK adults surveyed initially said they did not wish to receive advertising on their mobile phones, 56% of all respondents agreed that they would support mobile marketing and advertising campaigns if it was on an opt-in basis and in exchange for incentives or rewards, ranging from cash, free minutes or relevant special offers from brands.
“This research clearly shows that although consumers expect mobile marketing and advertising to grow in popularity, brands using the medium to communicate with target groups will need to offer consumers added value to be successful,” says Velti CEO, Alex Moukas. “Learning how to incentivise and reward participants is key; consumers understand their value in the chain, so campaigns that fail to offer anything relevant or beneficial will, at best, be treated indifferently and at worst, create negative associations with the brand.”
According to the research, cash is king, with 50% of respondents admitting that hard currency is the key to securing their buy-in. Next on the consumers’ incentive wish list were free minutes, free texts or data, with 40% of respondents citing them as an attractive reward for receiving advertising or marketing messages. Finally, 22% of respondents viewed location-based services, such as local restaurant reviews, as a worthy exchange for mobile marketing communications.
Despite the fact that almost 60% of all respondents agreed that incentivised marketing and advertising campaigns were attractive, 55% of mobile users over 45 were adamant that nothing would encourage them to engage with mobile marketing. This was in contrast to only 29% of under 24s opposing the use of mobile as a commercial channel.
Mark Fallows, Director of Digital Content at McCann Erickson, find the results of the survey encouraging. He says:
“Mobile advertising and marketing has opened up a channel for brands looking to engage their consumers in a more contextually relevant manner. It’s exciting, as it forces agencies and clients to be very precise in the value we offer in exchange for consumers’ interaction. The fact that consumers are becoming increasingly open to mobile as an advertising and marketing medium is an encouraging and timely development.”
Velti and its mobile marketing agency Ansible, recently ran a campaign with Johnson & Johnson which engaged with pregnant women by asking them to text their due date to a shortcode. This allowed Johnson & Johnson to send the mothers-to-be only the most relevant information and offers corresponding to the exact stage of their pregnancy. The campaign also allowed mothers-to-be to join a mobile community contributing to a support network for pregnant women in their area. According to Velti, the campaign achieved a 94% retention rate over six months, with the expectant mums opting back in on a monthly basis.
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BMW is one of the world’s most recognizable brands. As part of their on-going effort to build stronger connections with consumers, BMW has established a Marketing Innovation Center, which, among other things, has responsibility for developing mobile advertising and marketing.
Marc Mielau is the Innovation Manager for Mobile Marketing at BMW. In this two-part interview Marc explains how a major brand like BMW with a large complex organization can effectively address new opportunities such as mobile advertising and marketing, and he shares several of the very interesting campaigns that BMW has run. (more…)
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There was an interesting survey conducted by ABI Research recently that pointed out that SMS marketing’s level of responsiveness can often be improved through the use of incentives.
The results of the survey suggest 37% of those who have received text message-based advertising have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising in a text-based marketing message if they are offered an incentive such as a retail coupon or free song or ringtone, compared with only 11% who indicated that such incentives would not have any impact.
Not very surprising, but incentives that received the most positive response in study were real-world discounts and coupons for retail storefronts. 60% of those who were either neutral or open to potential text message marketing nominated a discount coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. After retail coupons, the next most popular incentives were free ringtones and songs.
This study more or less pointed out the obvious. It’s been widely known that SMS marketing campaigns almost have to include an incentive in one way or another to be even remotely successful. I’m actually surprised the number wasn’t higher than 37% of the respondants who wanted an incentive to respond to the campaign- in my experience, if there’s really nothing the user can gain from the interaction, they’re not going to bother.
“We think that in general, advertisers and operators must tread carefully when delivering marketing messages to a consumer’s mobile handset, especially given that many subscribers believe they are paying a significant amount of money for their mobile services,” says research director Michael Wolf. “However, we believe that marketing and advertising messaging that is properly crafted and that utilizes incentives could enjoy more acceptance on the part of the consumer.”
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After a slower start than Western Europe, the United States has caught up in the adoption of 3G mobile, with 28.4% of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices vs. the average of 28.3% among the five largest Western Europe states, according to comScore.
The only major European countries exceeding the US in 3G penetration are [...]
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Idle screen media company Celltick has released results from the first implementation of the new Response-based Segmentation (RBS) feature for its LiveScreen Media platform. The segmentation process tracks user interaction with content displayed on the idle screen and automatically creates a profile which allows Celltick to target users according to their areas of interest and demographic characteristics.
In a deployment with a Brazilian operator, Celltick says the results demonstrate a 60% increase in the number of users responding to teasers on the idle screen, and an 80% increase in the overall number of clicks per day since the service enhancement was introduced.
The LiveScreen Media platform is designed to provide mobile operators, content providers and advertisers with a mobile marketing media channel that employs sophisticated segmentation capabilities to maximize response rates, customer retention and enhanced revenue opportunities.
Celltick says that user profiling through RBS compliments LiveScreen Media’s existing segmentation capabilities, which include location based broadcasting, handset segmentation and time-sensitive campaigns. Specifically, RBS enables operators to analyse their subscribers’ behaviour, understand their needs and interests and by doing so, target them with personalised mobile content. By identifying the type of content subscribers are most likely to respond to, as well as what they would like to be able to do through their mobile device, says Celltick, RBS can increase the success rate of each message and ultimately raise the operator’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
“In mobile marketing, it is crucial for operators to differentiate their services for advertisers, content providers and subscribers alike,” says Celltick CEO, Stephen Dunford. “RBS can provide improved performance and enhanced revenues as well as help increase customer retention by providing the content subscribers really want, rather than generic messages.”
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Mobile Marketers Target College Students In a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactve for Alloy Media + Marketing, 9 out of 10 US college students own a mobile phone – go figure! As a result, text messaging is on the rise with a full 70% of students indicating that they have texted a friend. Marketers have taken notice of the growth, however, more than one-half of college respondents to a separate Youth Trends survey said that while they understand ads support what they do, they were not a
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Nearly 50% of Millennials want to receive promos on their mobiles
London, UK: New research commissioned by Velti, a leader in mobile marketing technology and services, revealed that 79% of UK consumers believe the growth of mobile advertising is inevitable. The survey, which polled more than 1,600 UK mobile phone users about their usage habits, showed [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Successful mobile marketing in the UK rests on rewards”, url: “http://www.gomonews.com/successful-mobile-marketing-in-the-uk-rests-on-rewards/” });
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