Driving sales while building brands, the future of mobile, and more
Driving sales while building brand
Interactive mobile applications that incorporate rich streaming media not only position your product and build brand, but drive traffic and sales back to your company. They present advertising opportunities by streaming branded content along with commerce links to purchase merchandise. For example, Cielo's Gravity Channel application for action sports streams video clips of snowboarding competitors using Burton equipment. Gravity Channel combines this video with interactive features that allow snowboarding enthusiasts to obtain Burton gear from the phone.
Own the mobile subscriber
A handset-resident interactive application makes an exceptional lifestyle and personal entertainment product. Once branded, it establishes an affinity between the consumer and the brand. Once the application is distributed directly to the subscriber, the brand now owns the relationship with that subscriber.
Bypassing the carrier is important to gain consumer information. "The carriers are not willing to give the advertising companies demographic data about the subscriber," explains Gary Towning, group account director at OgilvyOne Worldwide. "We don't want to irritate the consumer; we want to target our campaigns and make them as relevant as possible."
Consumers want to use mobile interactive applications, because they find them entertaining. As the publisher and distributor of its own handset-resident mobile application, the consumer-brand company knows exactly who the subscriber is. Therefore, the consumer brand can drive any type of customer relationship campaign. For example, product promotions can be offered to consumers within the vicinity of a new store opening. Moreover, highly granular information can be collected to support targeted promotions. The application supports true interactivity with immediacy, avoiding the slow back-and-forth nature of text messaging.
Awkward text-messaging or simple navigation?
Messaging campaigns require precise text-message responses from consumers. An inaccurate or ambiguous response will trigger annoying messages seeking clarification. In addition, messaging campaigns must interpret free-form text. If, for example, a baseball cap is offered, the consumer is asked to send a text message with his or her address. The burden is then on the messaging provider to correctly parse and interpret the text.
An interactive application contains a more effective graphical user interface. A consumer simply selects the style of cap and its size, and enters his or her address within address fields-- if the application hasn't already captured profile information.
Furthermore, revenue from subscription-based applications can defray the expense of free or discounted merchandise. In fact, free gear can be used as an incentive for consumers to originally subscribe for the application. Note, however, that subscription applications are most common from media and entertainment companies (for example, Major League Baseball), while consumer-goods applications are often free.
If a subscription fee is charged for the application, then a dollar amount appears on the consumer's monthly bill from the mobile carrier, which takes a percentage. However, a carrier may be unwilling to place merchandise charges on a cellular bill. Furthermore, a consumer-goods company may be unwilling to share merchandise revenue with the carrier. By owning the application, the consumer company is free to establish alternate billing models for merchandise such as a credit card.
One-stop campaigns
Typical mobile marketing campaigns require consumers to register first at the company's website. Why? Because text-message campaigns lack the interactivity to capture registration information directly from the phone. Only after this information is collected at the website can consumers begin receiving messages to their cell phones. Interactive mobile applications preclude the need to drive consumers first to a company's website, since capturing information is easily accomplished. This one-stop campaign provides a smoother, friendlier experience and also allows companies to capture profile and demographic information useful for target marketing.
The future of mobile marketing
The global proliferation of mobile phones with text messaging means that text-message campaigns still have their place. Not all phones in use today support more advanced features such as streaming video, which enable interactive applications to deliver the most compelling experience for consumers.
However, with the number of advanced handsets growing rapidly along with high-speed mobile networks, the time is right for companies to own their own branded mobile applications. These companies stand to:
- Seize early-mover advantage,
- Establish strong brand presence, and
- Capture revenue from interactive mobile marketing.
Next steps: Reaching the broadest number of phones
Companies might consider starting with traditional text-message campaigns, while simultaneously planning their development, discovery and distribution strategy for branded, rich-media interactive applications. A number of vendors today provide a messaging and short-code platform to implement your mobile campaigns. Yet, marketers should consider messaging technology from a vendor that can:
Help formulate strategies for discovery and distribution of their branded mobile products.
Use short codes to tie mobile campaigns to the client's entire brand strategy For example, the marketing strategy for a new beauty product should publish the short code for the mobile campaign in the product's print and media campaigns.
Provide mobile-marketing technology that automatically detects the capabilities of each consumer's phone and delivers a mobile "experience" optimized for that particular handset. For example, some consumers may receive text containing a text joke every week from a famous comedian, while others obtain a streaming video of a standup comic.
In summary, your mobile marketing strategy should put your brand (or your client's brand) in the pockets of the broadest number of consumers and provide the most engaging, interactive experience possible. Good luck in extending and optimizing your marketing reach to the mobile channel.
Dean Macri is president of Boston-based Cielo Group, the first company to stream video to cells phones, launching applications that it built for Major League Baseball, the NBA and NokiaSports. Cielo publishes, hosts and manages interactive, handset applications that extend the reach of media, entertainment and consumer-brand companies. Macri built Cielo to also provide message-based delivery of mobile content and micro sites in order to give ad agencies a one-stop solution and evolutionary path that meets the mobile-marketing needs of their clients. A veteran of the mobile industry, Macri is an engaging speaker who has talked at numerous mobile conferences including CTIA, MES, NATPE and NAB.