| Have Phone, will function |
| Monday, 27 January 2003 | |
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FT Creative Business, 28 January 2003 - If you think your mobile is taking up too much of your life already, the situation is going to get a lot worse. Widespread adoption of mobile phones has already had a
significant impact on our social behaviour. Today we are arranging our
social lives "on the fly" instead of planning ahead. Traditional
downtime while waiting or travelling is now often used to talk on the
phone. The notion of being at home has become less significant, as we
can be reached pretty much anywhere these days.
But the effects that mobile phones will have on our communication patterns are far from over. There is one area in particular that so far has been fairly untouched by the arrival of mobile phones: how we are communicating with companies, and how they are communicating with us. Over time, the mobile phone will become a more and more powerful medium, not just for peer-to-peer communication. In fact, it will become the most powerful direct communication channel that marketers will have. While video streaming will become a reality, the mobile phone will probably still be eclipsed by TV in terms of the richness of the content. But the mobile does combine the location sensitivity of outdoor advertising with the targeting of direct mail and e-mail, and it adds a new kind of involvement that can be achieved through its personal touch and its interactivity. Technical advances to our mobile devices will continue to be mirrored by changes in our communication behaviour. Soon we will not only be able to check our bank balance on our mobile, but also make transactions with it. We will submit our gas meter reading and hear about changes in electricity prices. We will learn about flight delays, preview movie trailers with our mobile cinema tickets, vote for our MP's, pay for bus and parking tickets, get a video birthday message from Kylie Minogue, and tell the train operator that its service was appalling. The mobile phone will become our personal communication gateway, not just with our peers and family, but with a range of trusted brands. An increasing number of companies will talk to us through our mobile phone and they will launch themselves into a new world of integrated digital direct marketing. The customer will benefit by saving time, money, and hassle by being entertained by what companies offer. Companies themselves will derive sizeable cost savings and will start learning more about their customers. Sceptics might say that they would never allow companies to invade the private space of their mobile phones. My prediction is that if brands get it right, consumers won't be able to get enough of it, as it makes their lives easier and more fun. Intergrated digital direct marketing is not just about the mobile phone, though: it will also cover PC's, TV and possibly a range of other devices. However, the mobile phone is the lynchpin between all these different channels and by far the most important one, as its ubiquity will mean that it has the highest penetration of all devices in terms of consumers' time. Looking back to where we are today, there are only relatively limited e-mail and SMS marketing campaigns. The approach is still media-centric rather than customer-centric. But there is evidence that brands will move towards this consumer-centric position. Some of the more innovative companies are already using mobile as a relationship-marketing tool. Channel Five recently announced that it will combine its relationship marketing programme via SMS with its e-mail programme, creating a medium-agnostic view of their audience. One thing will remain constant throughout the emergence of intergrated digital direct marketing as a new discipline: brands will have to work as hard today as they will have to in the future to win and maintain the privileged position of gaining this level of intimacy with a customer. If you already feel that you are relying on your mobile phone too heavily, there is more bad news to come. We are probably only seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of how important these devices will become in our daily lives. © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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