On the heels of February 2007’s report about a Visa survey indicating consumers are eager to receive marketing messages on their mobile devices ("Hold the Phone," AVN Online, February 2007) comes word from Forrester Research that if companies are going to play that game, they’d better be willing to deliver meat along with the potatoes or face the consequences.
According to a Forrester study released in January, 79 percent of consumers find the prospect of mobile ads annoying, although early efforts at mobile marketing have revealed consumers will engage campaigns as long as marketers deliver valuable information or content. The payoff may be worth the risk, Forrester noted: A growing number of consumers are shifting from voice-only mobile services to other activities, creating a viable audience for mobile marketing. Thirty-five percent of U.S. households that own a mobile phone currently engage in text messaging, and 11 percent access the mobile Internet.
However, to combat preconditioned skepticism (born in the age of television, when, in most cases, ads increasingly became seen as grating-on-the-nerves interruptions rather than engaging diversions), marketers must recognize that mobile marketing is about offering value, not interrupting consumers with unmoving and irrelevant ads.
"To avoid the perception of mobile spam, marketers must work with the unique elements of the mobile channel itself and the relevance of their message," said Christine Spivey Overby, Forrester Research principal analyst and co-author of the report "Is the U.S. Ready for Mobile Marketing?" "In contrast to other channels, mobile is highly integrated into people’s daily activities and physical environment. This means that marketers can embrace the real-world connections with relevant location-based services and campaigns that tie mobile and on-premise advertising."
Forward-looking mainstream brands already are successfully employing multimedia messaging, mobile Web browsers, and downloadable applications and content to reach consumers via mobile phones, according to Forrester.
For example:
To increase late-night visits, McDonald’s placed mobile ads on mobile websites like Match.com, which are frequented by young consumers (the demographic group most willing to embrace mobile advertising). McDonald’s said it saw higher-than-average click-through rates due to a highly relevant offer: mobile coupons valid between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. for one night only.
Clear Channel radio station WXKS (KISS 108 FM) in Boston offers a "text club" in which listeners receive mobile alerts and promotions and use text to interact with disc jockeys during broadcasts. Forty-eight percent of the club sent premium SMS messages for a chance to win breakfast with Nick Lachey, the station said.
Broadway Marketplace, a small grocer in Cambridge, Mass., replaced its card-based loyalty program with one that uses mobile phones to identify shoppers. The approach allowed the grocer to deliver promotions based on a shopper’s purchase history directly to his or her mobile phone. Eighty-two percent of Broadway’s shoppers now belong to the program, and 64 percent participate on a regular basis, according to the company.
The good news, then, is that advertisers that target mobile users by location and demographic can create actionable campaigns that grab users’ attention, because they’re fresh, intriguing, and offer something with a high level of perceived value, often with a time-limited call to action.
The bad news? According to Forrester, only 3 percent of mobile device-bearing consumers say they trust ads on mobile phones. Part of that is due to recent reports about consumers who were charged data-reception fees for unsolicited mobile spam. Carriers traditionally have cringed at the notion of mobile advertising out of fear the practice will generate mountains of consumer refund requests. Now, however, many are looking at mobile advertising as a potential additional revenue stream—but that means they’ll have to replace revenues lost by providing consumers free data reception with pay-to-send revenues from advertisers. That’s not impossible: Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless in late 2006 began placing ads on their mobile portals, hoping to snag some of the reported $150 million in mobile marketing spending in 2006 (up from $45 million in 2005, according to research firm Ovum). Mobile advertising outlay is expected to increase to nearly $1.3 billion by 2009.
The Forrester report suggested three ways marketers can use the medium effectively: by sending coupons and encouraging mobile users to respond with SMS short codes, by placing catchy ads on carrier portals or in mobile browsers, and by offering ad-supported applications and content. For the adult industry, the first and last methods remain the most relevant in the form of dating and community applications, content that interacts with pay-per-view television or DVDs, and adult "moantones," games, and other downloadable content.
"Broader mobile-data adoption is finally providing marketers with a real opportunity to reach customers, particularly the young and socially connected," said Forrester Research Principal Analyst and co-author of the report Charles S. Golvin. "But, marketers must adopt a more nuanced campaign approach in order to reach these consumers due to the highly personal and intrusive nature of the mobile medium."
