Mobile Marketing

Leading on from my last post - the insert of the presentation by Graham Brown and taking the fact that my focus is all about Mobile Media, I have in the past few months been giving a lot of consideration to the mobile marketing arena.

I have seen and toyed with some amazing applications that facilitate marketing to users. I consider some of these mechanisms as pure genius and proposed and used some of them in the strategies we have designed, however after having viewed the presentation below I find myself standing back thinking about the relevance of what we do.

4 words have been resonating through my being - what is the relevance?

I look at Mxit - and immediately can identify that the relevance of the platform, which is to provide a cost effective mechanisms for people to communicate. It's no surprise that the platform has been adopted by the younger generation but what is a surprise is how the platform is evloving to facilitate the corporate world and although I get it I can't see the relevance - the engagement is very one sided and totally foreign to what the platform is all about.

Are the users of the platform actually benefitting from being advertised to...? I used to think so but today I'm not so sure.

I look at Multimedia messaging and again logically can identify why the mechanism is a great one, but find myself asking the question; what is the relevance of distributing multimedia adverts? People use the application to send pictures to and from their friends and even in that relevant space there has not been a massive uptake by phone users.

The success of a GREAT marketing campaign lies in the uptake and engagement with your target audience and as much as I'd like to profess that mobile marketing is THE best mechanism within your marketing campaigning I have to be prudent in advising that successful campaigning includes a mix of relevant platforms. e.g. We ran a campaign for a large Blue Chip recently where the campaign made use of TV, Radio, Print, Online, Mobile banner adverts, Splashscreens within Mxit, Multimedia Messages and SMS. It was interesting to note that radio had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the campaign - as we could see traffic spike on the mobisite after the campaign had been pitched. Likewise with MMS and SMS - after sending out the message we had a tremendous spike in traffic on the Mobi-site. It has been difficult to measure the response from Mxit, TV and Print however with the correct mix of delivery and engagement mechanisms one can very easily measure the success of the campaign.

The most important and crucial element that one needs to consider at all times is; "what is the relevance?" Look at all the mechanisms available to you, identify their purpose and establish whether your objective, within that environment, will have relevance. Plan effectively, ensure that your advisors have your best interests at heart and don't be afraid to test the landscape. This is a new channel of engagement, we are all learning and will continue to do so. i.e. What works well with one brand, may not neccessarily render the same results for another.... Test the relevence, understand the mechanisms and have some fun.