Three years ago, TV viewers in the U.S. got their first real taste of the potential power of mobile marketing.
That was the year that the most popular televised singing competition in America teamed with a major telecommunications company to allow viewers to vote for their favorite singer via text messages. The campaign generated 7.5 million text messages during that season, with voters nationwide vying for a chance to win trips to New York or Beverly Hills. Soon after, other hit shows launched mobile promotions of their own. The door for mobile marketing had been opened.
Years later, a growing number of marketers are finally rushing in – setting the stage for mobile marketing to finally make what some see as a long-overdue splash in the multichannel mix. And as more brands begin to take their messages mobile, they are discovering a wealth of consumers willing to answer their calls.
“Our advertiser clients are telling us that they want to find new ways to reach consumers,” says Olivier Griot, managing director of mobile services at publishing giant Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., which publishes magazines such as Elle and Car and Driver. “And it’s no secret that they are looking to reallocate some of their budget to reach consumers through multiple touchpoints by sending the same message through print, online, mobile and event channels.”
While few are hailing mobile as the next great frontier – in a recent Adweek online poll, respondents deemed mobile “the most overrated medium” in terms of advertiser value – signs still clearly show that the channel once tuned out in the U.S. (even though it was being fervently embraced overseas) should begin to gain a real foothold. For instance, in January, research firm eMarketer predicted a dramatic rise in mobile advertising spending, from $421 million in 2006 to nearly $5 billion by 2011.
“We all agree,” says Jeff Ostiguy, vice president of business development at g8wave, an integrated mobile media company in Boston. “Mobile marketing will be an important channel.”
Still, mobile has been slow to take off in America, in part because many of the major carriers were resistant to opening content to advertisers. Last fall, one of the largest carriers became the first to open its content menu to marketing messages. In addition, Verizon Wireless has announced plans to permit banner ads on Web sites that its users access from their cell phones.
Some companies are finding creative ways to integrate mobile into a broader, multichannel strategy. Hachette Filipacchi has begun a serious push to exploit the potential of mobile as a content platform alongside print and the Internet, working with a firm that specializes in mobile media creation, management and back-end fulfillment. Hachette Filipacchi uses portions of its print, Internet and event-sponsorship real estate to promote mobile offerings such as text alerts and a Web site optimized for mobile phone viewing. The company recently made Car & Driver content – including auto news, reviews and alerts – available to mobile users.
