Return to Page 1
The mobile phone already acts as a wallet and currency enabler in more progressive mobile markets such as Japan and Europe. As we progress further toward this, the phone will become an ID, and its electronic signature may be useful for creating consumer lists. Using your Mobile as a way of purchasing goods is a trend cropping up in markers beyond North America. It opens up interesting opportunities for making business simple and building affinity programs. Expect to see things such as RFID cropping up here with phones. Mini drivers have already experienced personalized ads triggered by their key fob. That sort of thing can done with relative ease once phones can be used as a form of passive electronic ID.
Digital companions
GPS and location-aware applications are starting to gain traction. A "digital companion" is an application that helps you out. They are bits of software that can learn certain things and can respond to their environment. Some examples: As you pass by the dry cleaners the phone beeps to remind you of stuff you dropped off; as you enter the grocery store it automatically picks up your list of things to get from the web.
Digital companions are a form of software called expert systems. They help us do the little things, and they can be developed to help foster a relationship between a company and a consumer.
Side loading
Most of the higher-end phones now allow you to "side load" information, which is the ability to sync information from a PC. Since we have reached a point in technology that has allowed us to view relatively high-quality video on a small screen but are stuck at an economic point that makes downloading large files far too expensive, more and more rich content will be downloaded through home networks and synced to a phone.
Side loading creates opportunities for enterprising marketers. I'm a sci-fi fan, and if I could sync some video to my mobile device daily, I'll even watch the ads, especially if I don't have to pay exorbitant carrier charges for the privilege of downloading. In fact, I'll even go so far as to provide some personal information so that my daily sync can contain some advertising that may actually be relevant and interesting to me.
Ultimately, what needs to change is the pricing structure of the wireless carriers, but in the meantime, providing consumers with phone-friendly video content will go a long way toward reaching the on-the-go consumer.
Voicebots
When we talk about mobile marketing, the compulsion is to talk about fancy internet and software applications, but we often forget about plain old voice. Voice is the killer app for a phone, and it's also been all but completely overlooked as a form of mobile marketing. Every cellphone user has access to it; speaking is a standard feature on all cellphones. We don't have to worry about protocols, hardware or compatibility.
I would love to be able to walk into a bookstore, call a number and listen to a quick review of the most interesting books recently released. It would be really useful to walk into a grocery store and listen to a quick recorded voice with some healthy dinner ideas or a wine store with smart suggestions. The possibilities are endless.
Voicebots are a low-tech way of doing mobile marketing right now in a meaningful way.
Mobile is headed for mainstream
Mobile marketing is starting to become a brighter light on the horizon. It just took some time for the hardware to actually catch up with the possibilities. Apple changed the game by finally creating a canvas that, above all, inspires people to think about the possibilities. With the new technologies headed toward us, mobile marketing ideas will soon be able to bypass many of the difficulties we have faced in the past because of restrictive networks and high fees, SMS costs, expensive, wireless data fees and a host of other problems here and there.
These obstacles are being addressed by the technology, and hardware trends are shifting the control of content and network access -- which the carriers have always dominated -- back to the consumers, and that above all is the biggest potential boost to mobile marketing.
Mobile marketing's day in the sun is almost -- but not quite -- here. Change is good, imagination is better.
Have fun thinking and inventing.
Brady Gilchrist is executive vice president of strategy and head of BlueScience, Fuel Industries' creative strategy and research division. Read full bio.
