Mobile Marketing!?

Every day we are seeing more and more company's delve into the world of mobile marketing and I am thrilled to see the transition taking place.

I am however concerned at the number of companies out there that are pushing their value proposition as mobile marketers, when in fact the the truth is they're not!

The use of various elements of mobile media must be viewed in line with an entire strategy and should not neccessarily be used independently - that is not Mobile marketing!

What is Mobile Marketing?

Is it the use of SMS/Text,
Is it the use of MMS,
Is it the use of a Mobi-site,
Is it the use of Banner Ad Placements,
Is it the use of Applications,
Is it the use of Social media.

Running an SMS based campaign works exceptionally well if utilised to inform or solicit participation in competitions. As advertising - it pales into insignificance by comparison to an MMS based campaign - where you have the ability to engage with a user in a very rich, and entertaining basis.
Setting up a Mobi-site gives you a mobile presence however how are you engaging with customers in this space? This is important! This is where your level of engagement needs to tie in with what is transpiring in the social media space. This should form a part of your online strategy. Your Mobi-site is crucial to the success of your Mobile marketing campaign - make sure you think this one through carefully in order to meet your objectives.
Using Content and Applications can form a crucial part of the delivery mechanism but should by no means be the core of your Mobile Campaign. They are an extension to achieve your Reach.
If you review the statistics about social media and understand what social media is all about - you'll understand that there is an inexorable link between the 2 mediums.
People are choosing where they spend their time online and the clutter associated with branding/advertising is filtered out by what they choose to engage in.
The mobile phone is literally the access point to this world of social networking and as a brand, one needs to ensure that you have your strategy geared and optimised to extract and deliver VALUE!
There is a direct correlation between social networking and mobile marketing and there is a huge requirement to facilitate incorporating the mix of mechanisms above to deliver that.

So What is Mobile Marketing?
It is in fact the strategy around engaging a brand with consumers in a mobile environment, to deliver and achieve the desired objectives. Use the medium effectively and you will discover the most powerful media platform - ever!

Motorola Rokr E8

I have been making a lot of noise about Mobile Media on this blog and yet have not given much consideration to the devices that are the foundation to all that I have presented thus far. So the direction of this blog is changing somewhat but I guess that's what life is about - isn't it...

Everyone is talking about the new 3g Apple Iphone which admittedly is a beautiful piece of engineering.. So I've decided to turn my attention to the new Motorola "Rokr" series instead.

I have to admit I have never been a big fan of Motorola.. Having toyed with the Razr and a couple of earlier 3g editions. I found the whole user experience a bit backward as compared to Sony Ericsson and Nokia. The menu structure and functionality of the phone just never felt right. Sending a text was always a mission for some reason and the quality of the audio was horrible to say the least. Save to say I’ve been pretty loyal to Sony Ericsson – up till now – but that’s an entirely different discussion.

Recently I was handed an EM30 to play with and to my pleasant surprise I have been bowled over by the phone. It's probably one of the sexiest phones on the market - the look and feel is really funky. Although it is designed as a music phone it facilitates all the functionality I required for accessing the web as well as my Gmail account. It is exceptionally easy to use - and it works! The phone has clearly been pitched at a younger market where music, pictures, blogging etc are important as it has all these wonderful features built in. The audio has been improved dramatically with their Crystal talk function which allows you to talk and hear in any environment as Motorola's new technology filters out background noise.

What I did struggle with initially was the setting up of MMS and WAP but after some manual intervention got the phone working. Another small issue for me is the screen size.... great width but a bit short for my liking.

So the question is have they done enough to entice existing users of Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and Nokia to make the switch?..... hmmmmm

What you think of the new phone and or your experience with Motorola?

Technical Stats

Mobile Media Marketing

There is so much happening in this space at the moment however content providers/aggregators dominate with their delivery of ringtones, games, horoscopes, news, weather, sport reports, adult content etc.

What we are also seeing are advertising agency’s also starting to offer services in this space by providing SMS campaigns, competitions, barcode entry, quizzes, auctions, mms, mobizines, mobicodes and wap portals.

The reason for this is as clear as daylight – the mobile phone is the most personal form of communicating with ones customers. As consumers move from traditional forms of print media to subscribing to RSS news feeds on the mobile we will see this becoming the bigger part of an agency’s value proposition.

I view most of the current activities around mobile media marketing as “pamphlet dropping” which I guess is the historical approach to marketing where you target an audience, drive your brand to them and trust that they 10% will identify with what you have to say.

What I am not seeing much of, is clever use of the mobile medium by corporations.
Campaigns are driven by basic footfall/reach and or penetration with little or no regard to the recipient. A perfect example is SMS based activity - there is so much of it happening and there is no possible way to differentiate your brand.

A Mobile Media Marketing Campaign;
Should be focused
Should be personalised
Should include the use of rich multi media
Should entertain the recipient
Should encourage user generated content (in other words – INTERACTION with the recipient)
Most importantly, should deliver real time reporting on the activity within the campaign
This way any money spent can be justified and in addition the brand builds a reputation with their customers.

Heads up to Vodacom for their new mobile soap! That is BRILLIANT use of the mobile media platform and a space to watch for future growth as more companies see the value in creating personalised content which engages a consumer.

As a company looking to engage in any form of Mobile Media Marketing Strategy – remember the above mentioned points, ensure that the people you are dealing with have the ability to fulfil that and most importantly have the technology to deliver the campaign. There is nothing worse than spending an entire budget on a well designed campaign and being let down because the technology driving the campaign is ineffective. It has to work across all mobile phone platforms, symbian, smart, windows etc and your back end has to facilitate engaging with every type of handset out there – food for thought?

Check out Grapevine Creative Media http://www.grapevinepostcards.com/ who too are engaging this space exceptionally smartly.

The long road to living your Passion

We all have our passion - categorized into various elements of our lives - the things that drive us, push us and keep us coming back for more. I for one have many..., my favorite however is my love the ocean. Give me a surfboard, a wave and I am in the space I would love to live the rest of my existence out. I would do almost anything to get into the surf, on a good day, no wind, blue sky and warm water. Hmmm - contentment, fulfillment and a sense of belonging.

Until recently I have been on a very long journey of self discovery in finding a place of interest where I can work in an environment and experience the same or similar emotions as to those of my extra-curricular passions. You see I believe that this life of ours has to count – and I for one want to be content, fulfilled and have that sense of belonging in the work I do.

It's been a seriously long road, one in which I have enjoyed many of the opportunities I have had the privilege of being engaged in – however, up until recently not one in which I have discovered my true passion.

My most fulfilling years in my work environment were when I used to work for HP, when I was 28, as the Marketing Manager for HP Africa. That was the most terrifying yet at the same time fulfilling work I have had the opportunity of being involved in. The sheer magnitude of looking after 52 countries, yet the absolute joy of being empowered to evangelize a Brand – it was magnificent.

Many years have passed since that time and through those I have had the privilege of working in the Mobile Phone space, which in my ‘humble’ has to be one of the most exciting business I have encountered in the past 12 years or so...., still the road was long and something about my passion was missing.

Right now I stand on the shore, and look to the future with those feelings of Contentment and Fulfillment for I have found my passion. I have discovered a place that provides me with the desire to be in this space all the time.....

Mobile Media together with Social Marketing media is absolutely the foundation off which I will be building my working platform going forward. The culture of everyone working in this space is one that gives me hope and excitement about the endless opportunities that we are presented with.

I have seen how effective this space is and recently ran a campaign that delivered phenomenal results - a 45% response rate! Where have you heard of that? All I can say is; look out for me, I'll be the one traversing the divide between internet and mobile communication riding every wave I have the opportunity of catching...

See you out there.