Cielo Group's president discusses how to go beyond text-message mobile marketing campaigns with branded interactive applications.

Agency BBDO and marketer Coca-Cola UK have each made claims that mobile will eventually replace TV as the most important medium for advertisers. And agencies such as Oglivy, Publicis and Saatchi are already conducting mobile marketing campaigns using text messaging. Yet many consumer-brand companies and their agencies lack the knowledge and technology to move beyond limited message-based mobile campaigns. Agencies and their clients are failing to take full advantage the cell phone-- what an executive at Quigley and Simpson calls "an exceptional response mechanism in the pocket of nearly every consumer."

Typical mobile campaigns employ text messaging to elicit a response from the consumer. For example, to obtain the offer for a free ringtone, a consumer either enters his or her phone number at a website or sends a text message to a "short code" published on product labeling or in the primary media. These actions trigger a series of back-and-forth text messages, culminating with a message containing a link to download the ringtone.

Text-message marketing campaigns are a good first step in mobile marketing and -- due largely to their relative novelty -- produce much higher response rates than internet-based email campaigns. However, text-message campaigns carry limitations. They generally elicit a simple, one-time response from the consumer: For example, "Yes, send me the free ringtone or a joke every week." These campaigns cannot engage the consumer in further communication beyond a simple opt in. As a result, the marketer is unable to re-engage with the consumer and advance the relationship.

Mobile interactivity
In contrast to text messages, truly interactive mobile applications reside on the cell-phone itself to connect companies directly to consumers and deliver a complete entertainment experience. Branded for media and consumer-goods firms, these applications enable firms to:

• Engage with subscribers in an ongoing relationship;
• Build social networks through blogging;
• Create communities where consumers post their own image and video content; and
• Create unprecedented advertising, sales and revenue opportunities.

For the growing number of smart phones, these applications contain on-demand streaming video as part of the application "experience." Video content is refreshed frequently, encouraging consumers to use the application every day, throughout the day. For example, the Portable Hollywood application, distributed by Jamster and discovered in magazine ads, provides different video features each day of the week, from red-carpet interviews with movie stars and celebrities to highlights of movies opening soon.  

So what is a handset-resident mobile application? 
Think of it as a browser on the phone dedicated entirely to your company's brand. An application that resides on the phone with only one destination-- yours. Your content. Your interactive campaigns. Your customers connecting directly to you. 

Handset-resident applications provide a more elegant experience that, again, consumers use throughout the day. They might combine fresh streaming video and music with image galleries, life-style information, news, blogging, offers, and interactive features that survey consumers and help sell products-- such as coupons for merchandise. Cross selling can be achieved through gathering of consumers' profiles and interests.  

As important, interactive applications become "advertainment" for consumers, who form an affinity with the brand. Consumers view their cell phones as an extension of themselves and these applications as part of their personal lifestyle.    

Consumers can easily download an interactive application over the air to their cell phones or find the application already resident on their handsets. Handset-resident applications are well suited to reaching the over-30 demographic, since adults are less inclined to use or respond to text messaging than teens. In addition, interactive applications have website-like graphical user interfaces that adults are familiar and comfortable with. 

One-time or continuous interaction?
Text messaging campaigns fail to connect directly to the consumer. For example, a mobile-phone user might respond to an offer within a car magazine ad for free wallpaper featuring a Dodge truck. To receive the wallpaper, he sends a text message to a short code, which functions like a mobile URL. However, once the offer is fulfilled through a one-time download, the direct connection with that consumer is lost. The severed connection precludes Dodge from continuing a dialogue with the user and from collecting behavioral information useful for future targeted marketing and communication.
 
In contrast, a consumer-brand company that offers a complete mobile application gains a continuous interactive relationship with the consumer. A direct connection to the consumer is attained each time he or she uses the application. Interactions with the consumer take place gracefully within the application, avoiding more cumbersome and limited text messaging. Messaging campaigns have no or limited opportunity to build brand, deliver "advertainment," and directly drive revenue.  

Discovery and distribution
The only instance that the interactive application depends on traditional messaging is in its initial distribution to the consumer. The application is first discovered through short codes found within primary media and on product packaging such as cereal boxes and candy wrappers. When a consumer sends a text message to a published short code, he or she receives a return message with a link. Opening the link downloads the complete application to the cell phone. A message that contains a link to ringtone or wallpaper can just as easily contain a link to a complete advertainment application.

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