Friday, May 11, 2007

And now, Marketing Campaigns...

Agency BBDO and marketer Coca-Cola UK have each made claims that mobile will eventually replace TV as the most important medium for advertisers. And agencies such as Oglivy, Publicis and Saatchi are already conducting mobile marketing campaigns using text messaging. Yet many consumer-brand companies and their agencies lack the knowledge and technology to move beyond limited message-based mobile campaigns. Agencies and their clients are failing to take full advantage the cell phone-- what an executive at Quigley and Simpson calls "an exceptional response mechanism in the pocket of nearly every consumer.

Typical mobile campaigns employ text messaging to elicit a response from the consumer. For example, to obtain the offer for a free ringtone, a consumer either enters his or her phone number at a website or sends a text message to a "short code" published on product labeling or in the primary media. These actions trigger a series of back-and-forth text messages, culminating with a message containing a link to download the ringtone.

Text-message marketing campaigns are a good first step in mobile marketing and -- due largely to their relative novelty -- produce much higher response rates than internet-based email campaigns. However, text-message campaigns carry limitations. They generally elicit a simple, one-time response from the consumer: For example, "Yes, send me the free ringtone or a joke every week." These campaigns cannot engage the consumer in further communication beyond a simple opt in. As a result, the marketer is unable to re-engage with the consumer and advance the relationship.