To get a return on investment, marketers must strike a good balance between a creative idea and its technical execution.
The buzz in the marketing industry is that this year is expected to be the "year of mobile," a projection that is linked to increasing mobile penetration worldwide. Mobile devices have become a constant companion in the lives of many, and represent a huge opportunity to savvy marketers who know how to reach consumers in the right way with the right message. However, there is still some hesitancy among U.S. marketers about implementing a mobile campaign, as the area is still untested for many. My thinking is that a number of things need to happen to make the mobile device a mainstream marketing medium in the United States.
Coming from Australia, where the mobile market is a few strides ahead of the market here, we've built up some unique experience and executed a wide range of mobile marketing campaigns in markets such as Europe and Asia Pacific (as well as the United States). Here are five ways (that you can count on your five fingers) that marketers can ensure success and clear ROI from implementing an integrated mobile campaign.
Clear visuals
To drive maximum mobile engagement, it's critical that the call to action is prominent and clear. In the case of a promotional campaign, there may be really great prizes on offer, but if the SMS number is printed too small in the marketing collateral (e.g. a flyer or road-side billboard), then response rates will suffer. This might seem obvious, but consumers usually participate spontaneously in such campaigns, so the longer someone has to search for the necessary data, like an SMS number, the faster he might get bored or change his mind to take part at all.
Marketers need to give their target audience the opportunity to see all information at a glance. A good example of this is the Live Earth concert series, which clearly displayed visuals asking all viewers to "Answer the Call" and help solve the climate crisis. Only the mobile (SMS) method was promoted across all channels in relevant markets because of its ubiquitous access. An estimated 2 billion people engaged in Live Earth via mobile phones, internet, television, iTV, radio and in-venue concerts.
Handset compatibility is king
A clever, elaborate and stylish campaign may win you awards, but it won't win you ROI if it's not compatible with the mobile devices your target audiences use the most. When initiating a mobile marketing campaign, you should be clear about which demographic you're targeting, and which devices, so that the technical content can be developed accordingly.
A good example of this is New Line Cinema's "Golden Compass" campaign. Mobile users were able to opt-in to receive an SMS message, which led them to download a "Golden Compass" Daemon image to their mobile phone. The image download prompted 5th Finger's platform to determine the type of mobile device each user had and send an appropriately configured image that each device could handle, including an optimized version -- especially for the iPhone.
Ease of use is key
Companies should have an intuitive call to action that's easy to understand and clear, without any complex steps for the participant. For example, if a quiz question is cryptic and overly challenging, or if the text that needs to be entered in order to participate is too long, the user might quickly lose interest.
Virgin Mobile's V-Fest, a music festival, included "Text the Fest" and "Foto the Fest" that had clear calls to action on both the Jumbotron and the concert program. The multiple response opportunity made the call to action easy to see and carry out, and resulted in an extremely high participation rate for both SMS and MMS messages.
Strong value proposition
Even if your proposition is very interesting, brands will get little feedback if the consumer doesn't value it. We put together a formula to help clients focus what is important to drive response rate: R=V+E (Response = Value + Exposure). By maximizing the value and relevance of the offer to the target audience and maximizing the exposure of the call to action across as much media as possible, the response rate will be maximized.
The Sunglass Hut, as an example, launched a mobile campaign with a high value proposition: Users can upload a photo to the website, and Sunglass Hut will send them a $25 discount message to their phones, which they can redeem at any store. The Sunglass Hut "Look Famous" campaign won "Best Integration with an Offline Advertising Campaign" at the 2008 AIMIA Awards.
Prize volume matters more than value
In the cases when you are offering prizes as part of the call to action, a large volume of lower value prizes can be much more effective in encouraging participation in promotions than having just one high value prize on offer. For example, campaigns that guarantee a free ring tone for every participant are usually more successful than campaigns in which just one user could win a car.
In the consumer's mind, having a 100 percent chance of winning a smaller prize is usually more attractive than having a smaller chance of winning a bigger one. An Absolut vodka billboard in Times Square, for example, displays a visible code that lets passers-by text message the code for a free Lenny Kravitz song download. The consumers are guaranteed the reward, so opt in more regularly than an entry for a more valuable prize.
More than any other medium, in the mobile realm, marketers must strike a good balance between a creative idea and the technical execution of that idea in order to ensure ROI. With the rapid evolution of mobile consumer devices, the smart marketers will be the ones who figure these things out now, and through the very personal nature of mobile, gain a foothold in the psyche of their target customer.
Steen Andersson is VP of marketing for 5th Finger.