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Comment: McDonald's move out of mobile shouldn't alarm By Pamir Gelenbe |
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Saturday, 31 May 2003 |
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Revolution June 2003 - The decision by McDonald's to abandon its mobile
marketing strategy has caused a few ripples of concern in the
community. On first impression it would seem that the exit of one of
the largest global brands, with extensive experience of mobile, could
have a damaging impact, but I feel it is actually a sign of the
sector's success. But how could this reaffirm the robustness of the
mobile marketing industry?
Largely due to the amount of attention this news has received relative to its significance. The reaction is more a reflection of the media's mood and desire for juicier news. Mobile marketing and interactivity is one of the few success stories in the post dotcom period. It's a sector witnessing exponential growth, expanding into new verticals each quarter and converting more and more blue-chip brands. But the press covering this success has, by and large, had yet another set of glowing results and account wins to talk about. Great for the industry, not so great for readers. Just as the Minority Report's voicemail campaign attracted unusually high negative publicity, a whiff of something slightly off, offers a more sumptuous read for the cynical. Another reason why McDonald's decision doesn't concern me is that it's so rare for a brand not to work with mobile once it has started. Most of the campaigns we've run over the past three years have seen tentative initial trials leading to fully-fledged mobile programmes. What also lessens the impact of this news is the lack of substantive evidence that McDonald's has 'abandoned' mobile, as was reported. Those who have subscribed to the promotion will know it has ended, but there's no evidence that the fast-food giant has written off mobile as a marketing medium. The significance of the news deflates even further when placed in a global perspective. MindMatics recently announced a mobile marketing deal with McDonald's in Germany , indicating that the UK move is not a strategic, group-wide decision. The decision not to use SMS is probably a tactical one. Furthermore, McDonald's UK 's mobile campaign was promotional by nature, as opposed to being CRM driven, and hence it is likely to obey the vagaries of a sales-promotion budget. Therefore, perhaps the question of what impact the move by McDonald's will have is more a question of responsible reporting for a still young industry, as opposed to one brand's inconsequential decision to end a promotion.
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