Mobile 101

Mobile Devices + Communication + Brand Message = Mobile Marketing

Simply, it’s another tactic marketers use to reach their target audience.

The longer story: Mobile marketing is the use of cell phones and other mobile devices to communicate a brand message. It has emerged as the most complimentary form of marketing due to the way it gives legs to all other mediums. For that it is now a key component in any integrated marketing strategy.

Examples could include: Text message campaigns, iPhone development, mobile advertising, mobile web sites, custom software, ringtones, wallpaper

  • Why Mobile?

    Marketing is no longer a monologue. It’s a dialogue. To participate in the conversation you need to go where your audience goes. How can you be any and everywhere like your audience? Simple. Go with them.

    270,000,000

    There were 270 million mobile subscribers at the end of 2008.

    160,000,000

    160 million are on a text-messaging plan.

  • SMS VS. Email

    • 94% of SMS are read
    • 75% are read instantly

    SMS open 3x that of email:

    • SMS: 30 mins
    • Email: 24 hours

    Click Through Rate:

    • SMS: 3% to 5%
    • Email: .2%

  • SMS / MMS Mobile Trends

    Why is mobile marketing more powerful than other marketing channels?

    • Average response rate is 12% vs. 2% traditional media.
    • Average age of people who text is 38 years.
    • 37% of subscribers age 35-54 regularly sent text messages, a 59% increase from 2007
    • 25% of mobile users have viewed mobile advertising the past 30 days, an increase of 38% from 2007.
    • 51% of mobile users who saw an ad responded with a text a message, click through or called a number.

  • Mobile Advertising Users

    With over 405 million mobile Internet users, the trend is expected to double by 2012.

    75% of mobile Internet users are over 25 years of age.

  • Mobile Marketing Campaigns

    • 70% of mobile advertisers use text messaging.
    • 31% of advertisers use video ads
    • 36% of mobile marketers use mobile search
    • 45% say they intend to start mobile search in the next 6 months
  • Sources
    Airwide Solutions independent survey of 50 brand name companies
    M:Metrics, Common Short Codes: Cracking the Mobile Marketing Code
    Nielsen Mobile’s Q4 2007 Mobile Advertising Report

Mobile Terminology

3G
3G is third-generation technology in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G include wide-area wireless voice and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. In marketing 3G services, video-telephone is often identified as a primary application for 3G.
Application Provider
Application providers provide the technology platform for common short code service applications.
Carrier
Shorthand for wireless carrier, carriers provide the network infrastructure for the delivery of messages between end users and connection aggregators or application providers.
Click to Call
A link on a mobile Web site ( WAP site ) that, when clicked, instantly initiates a call from that phone to a pre-specified number.
Common Short Code Administrator CSCA
The entity that oversees the registration, assignment and tracking of CSCs.
Connection Aggregator
Connection aggregators provide connectivity between carrier networks and application providers.
Content Provider
Content providers are entities that own or have the rights to content. They often license content to application providers for delivery to end users.
Common Short Code CSC
CSC is the abbreviation for common short code.
End User
Another term for wireless subscriber, end users are people and/or entities that utilize short codes for communication with applications.
Keyword
A keyword is a unique word (or number) that is created for a specific short code campaign. Multiple keywords can be used on a single short code active during a single period. The keyword is the actual text that a user keys in on their mobile phone to interact with a campaign.
Location Based Services LBS
Location-based services are offered by some cell phone networks as a way to send custom advertising and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location. The cell-phone service provider gets the location from a GPS chip built into the phone, or using radiolocation and trilateration based on the signal-strength of the closest cell-phone towers ( for phones without GPS features ).
Messaging Fees
Each time an SMS is sent, both the sender and receiver are charged a messaging fee by the wireless carrier. The messaging fees vary by carrier and volume. SMS messaging credits can be purchased in volume to reduce costs.
Mobile Originated MO
An SMS or MMS message that was sent from a mobile phone to a shortcode.
Multimedia Messaging Service MMS
MMS is a type of messaging that enables the sending of multimedia objects (images, audio, video) as opposed to the simple text enabled by Short Message Service ( SMS ) messages.
Mobile Terminated MT
Text messages sent from a shortcode to a users cell phone.
Mobile Virtual Network Operator MVNO
An MVNO is a Mobile Operator, which does not possess its own telecom network. An MVNO has its own SIM cards and purchases wholesale minutes from a Mobile Network Operator. An MVNO is free to apply its own pricelists and services, and manage its own invoicing and customer services.
OPT-IN
Opt-in is a way of collecting mobile and Internet users' personal data. Within the opt-in context, user acceptance is necessary before any mobile marketing solicitation.
Pull messaging
Describes the process where a person initiates a request from his/her mobile phone.
Push messaging
Describes the mailing of information ( SMS / MMS ), directly on the consumer's mobile phone and under the condition that his/her acceptance has been given.
Short Code
A short code is a special telephone number, significantly shorter than full telephone numbers, which can also be used to address SMS and MMS messages from mobile or fixed phones. While similar to telephone numbers, they are, at the technological level, unique to each operator, although providers generally have agreements to avoid overlaps. Short codes are widely used for value-added services such as interactive voting, ordering ringtones and other mobile services.
Short Message Service SMS
SMS is a service available on most digital mobile phones that permits the sending of short messages ( 160 characters ) between mobile phones and other handheld devices. SMS is commonly referred to as text messaging.
Wireless Application Protocol WAP otherwise known as Mobile Web
An open international standard for applications that use wireless communication. Its principal application is to enable access to the Internet from a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile internet sites, or WAP sites, are websites written in, or dynamically converted to, WML ( Wireless Markup Language ) and accessed via the WAP browser.