Canadian Marketing Blog

Navigating the Mobile Marketing Matrix

The number of companies that consider themselves part of “Mobile Marketing” is growing at a rapid pace. I thought I would take this opportunity to share with CMA blog readers what I call the Mobile Marketing Matrix so we can all navigate this space more effectively.

There are three primary areas of Mobile Marketing: browsing/search, content, and messaging.

Browsing/search involves using WAP (wireless application protocol) or mobile internet. WAP and WAP sites have been around in Canada for quite some time. Uptake of mobile internet usage has been very slow mainly due to the slow and cumbersome navigation. Often the term ‘WAP is Crap’ has been used to describe the user experience. However times are indeed changing; look for major leaps in wireless internet adoption rates. As wireless networks continue to evolve (bigger data packets and faster transmission speeds) and consumers subscribe to “all you can eat” data packages you will see advertisers soon follow and the internet model of advertising will move into the mobile world. At the recent annual conference for the US-based Mobile Marketing Association, setting standards and guidelines for mobile advertising took centre-stage.

Marketers should look to establish a presence in the mobile internet space now! I would recommend securing your dotMobi domains and WAP sites today. SEO (Search engine optimization) WAP banner ads, and mobile social networks will be a force to reckon with in the not so distant future.

Mobile content refers to ringtones, wallpapers, music, T.V., games which are usually created by content owners (or publishers). To distribute mobile content publishers most often use what’s called mobile storefronts, ideally your storefront should be cross carrier (i.e. with all the wireless networks). Marketers often ask my company to help them give away ringtones, wallpapers and mobile music (branded or not) to their loyal consumers. Unfortunately that is a very challenging request – especially in Canada. Mobile content is happening in Canada but there are very few instances of non-carrier based store fronts – the most popular storefront is Much Music’s.

Mobile Messaging is the most prevalent form of Mobile Marketing. We see it run through shortcodes, which are 5 or 6 digits numbers that are often used as vanity codes for brand names. There are different types of messages like SMS (text messaging), MMS (picture and video messaging), IVR (Interactive Voice Recording), and Bluetooth. For the most part, shortcodes offer marketers a wide variety of applications to execute: text to win, text voting, mobile coupons, text trivia as well as means to distribute MMS, mobile content and even SMS keyword search (Try using the GOOGLE shortcode to find your next Toronto Pizza spot – text PIZZA TORONTO to 47743).

Agree/Disagree? Something to add? We’d love to hear about your trips into the matrix.

Great overview! I would add the following...

1) Instead of "mobile content" i prefer "mobile downloading" which also includes tickets, barcodes, video, off-deck applications and the mobile wallet

2) Within browsing, i would suggest that search will be the first thing to really take off....although google is now offering free "ad sense" on their mobile platform

3) Within messaging - brands are now using SMS for alerts - which used to be the sole domain of email

Don't forget the Apple powerhouse that is the iPhone!

Really intriguing article in the NY Times just yesterday about how iPhone game apps are casting a huge shadow over the Japan Video Game Expo this week. Turns out the market is wondering how to cope with a platform that sells it's games for $0.99 or in many cases gives them away free (most of these are company marketing tie-ins.)

From New York Times
'Apple’s Shadow Hangs Over Game Console Makers' 26/09/09 :

-- And how can game developers and the makers of big consoles persuade consumers to buy the latest shoot’em-ups for $30 or more, when Apple’s App store is full of games, created by developers around the world and approved by Apple, that cost as little as 99 cents — or even are free?

“The next breakthrough in gaming is not going to be in hardware,” Yoichi Wada, president of a top Japanese game maker, Square Enix, told Game Show participants. “It’s going to be in how to create a successful business model.”

Haruhiro Tsujimoto, chief executive at another major game maker, Capcom, said, “In the past year, the gaming lifestyle has been transformed.”

“Cellphones have become a recognized gaming device,” Mr. Tsujimoto said. --

The ultimate downside of being in the 'matrix 'is that you are never able to escape virtual advertising. I am sent text messages DAILY by marketers who didn't need to steal my contact info - it was given to them (sold more likely) by my service provider. In the US I know this kind of activity is illegal, but where I am it is a constant and very annoying reality.

I love being connected and online but unlike many others I am not looking forward to the days soon to come where my phone is a personal assistant. An assistant who's main function appears to be more and more the delivery of useless corporate marketing for me to sift through.

I agree completely with focusing on mobile internet and messaging. Mobile is a younger cousin of online interactive and follows the same user dynamics with a few important differences especially when it comes to consumer CONVERSION.

Here is a retail article on these two key pillars of mobile:

http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/marketing-metrics/309-two-quick-takeaways-on-where-to-start-with-mobile-in-retail.html

G.