| Mobile Report: What has SMS ever done for us? |
| Tuesday, 30 September 2003 | |
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Revolution October 2003 - R u ready 4 some gr8 commercial opportunities? It's all too easy to underestimate the ways you can use mobiles in a business context. For many of us, the first application that springs to mind is SMS marketing campaigns targeting the youth, but that's a long, long way from the full story. Mobile communciation lends itself to a wide variety of commercial uses, from m-commerce to employee briefings and from research to adding an interactive dimension to print media. Mobile's pervasiveness is one of its advantages. Below we explore some of the main trends, developments and examples of mobile communication in action across five key business areas.Research It's fair to say that there are many limitations in using text messaging in market research, but in certain circumstances it can provide some timely, useful feedback. Mobile marketing agency Aerodeon calims to have used SMS successfully to raise awareness of its marketing campaigns, such as following up Nestle's Little Rolo campaign by encouraging the target market of 16 to 19-year-old girls to send a virtual Rolo to their loved ones using their phones and asking them questions. "The British public are familiar with answering SMS questions because of watching Big Brother," says Aerodeon managing director Chris Bourke. "We are seeing interesting opportunities in trade marketing with people getting excited about SMS. They are getting over their fear that SMS is a tool used by the youth marketers and it is being used to grab a piece of retail mindshare." Specialist research business Research Now has a 250,000 - strong 'multi-access panel' of consumers who can be accessed through different channels such as mobile, email and telephone. Andrew Cooper, joint managing director of Research Now, says SMS is a "technically efficient" means of recruiting people within the multi-access panel for specific projects: for example, a text delivered to 150 people, all owners of American double-door fridges, for qualiatitive research. Cooper believes mobile is the ideal channel for conducting research when immediacy is important. Examples include an opinion poll during the fireman's pay dispute as to whether they should accept the 11 per cent rise recommended by the Bain Review and other work for media planner and buyer Initative Media, which sought data to compare with TV ratings data from BARB. With the later,texts were send during 2002's World Cup asking recipients if they watched the England vs Brazil match at home, work in the pub or not at all: 67 per cent of responses were received within an hour and 92 per cent with in 12 hours. "I see SMS as part of the research mix," says Cooper. "It won't replace other research techniques, but it adds to the effectiveness of research. It helps in finding people quickly." Colin Strong, director of mobile communications research at NOP Technology, feels the 160-character limit of an SMS text message restricts the number of questions that can be posed, but thinks it has a role in responding quickly to breaking news. Ad recognitions using MMS is another area being explored by NOP. Although Strong says mobile offers "an auxillary research tool that will facilitate our speedy and emotionally satisfying interaction with a significant minority of the population", he has identified some drawbacks, the biggest being that a "significant number of users exhibit a reluctance to participate in market research via mobile". From a sample of 4,661 members of its online panel, NOP identified 3,474 individuals who used SMS on their mobiles, but only 19 per cent of them gave NOP permission to text them surveys. Given that these were NOP online panellists who had agreed to take online surveys, Strong says he was surprised that the cooperation was so low. Consequently, NOP undertook an online qualitative study, with 500 of the panellists who had refused to participate, to find their reason. A major finding was that they were still willing panellists as 382 accesssed the survey and 341 completed it. There was a 76 per cent response and a 89 per cent completion rate. It was not participation in surveys that was the issue for these people, but rather that they were unwilling to text a response from their mobile. Their major reasons were: the personal relationship they have with their mobile; the intrusive nature of SMS; the perceived cost of receiving surveys and sending replies; the volume of SMS spam; the limited inbox storage capacity on mobiles; and the belief that online surveys are more convenient. Business messaging GB Railways is using text messaging to keep in touch with its 70 freight-service driver-managers. The firm previously used pagers but turned to Xpedite's smsREACH product because it believes this is far more reliable as texts are still sent if a mobile is turned off or there is no network coverage. Also, smsREACH allows staff to check if and when a message has been received. The service is complemented by an intranet web-site, which driver-managers can access from their home PC's, and smsREACH alerts them when they need to log on to read up on current developments. Upon completion of the first phase of the project, GB Railways plans to use smsREACH to communicate with regular passengers on its Anglia Trains network and to keep in touch with Anglia's 300 drivers about work-roster changes. GB Railways is also exploring e-ticketing channels using SMS with smsREACH. Craig Barrack, country manager of Netsize UK, points out that his companu is also very active in this space. "Federal Express uses our SMS product for its delivery-tracking service, whereby truck drivers send an SMS to their support centre confirming delivery," he says. "FedEx estimates that this is 20 per cent more efficient than its previous system." Netzies UK's SMS technology has also been used to cut the average time taken by media firm JC Decaux to repair its dynamic billboards from days to hours. Sensors in the billboard automatically send an SMS when they detect a problem. Engineers usually arrive within three hours of the error first occuring. Other areas where Netsize UK's SMS products are being applied include a service to improve communications between schools and parents, and a service for hailing London cabs. In the healthcare sector, several companies are developing or trialling SMS-alert systems to remind patients of medical appointments or related data, such as reminding those coming in for surgery not to eat beforehand. Cy-nap is another company exploring opportunities in healthcare. It already has a presence in the corporate field, perhaps most notably working with Rockwell Automation to improve employee communications by getting alert messages to operatives in the field, issuing reminders for key dates, and sending in-house communications between managers and engineers. "It's a group application," says Cy-nap managing director Steve McCann. "It allows you to input all your contacts from an existing database or manually input them. Then you can break them down by different management groups or even the people working on a project. It's a very easy way to get in touch with peole. Not everybody in a company has email." McCann adds that Cy-nap is currently focusing purely on SMS rather than MMS because it is a technology that everyone is familiar with, but uses have already been found for picture messsaging in a corporate setting. Fife fire and Rescue Service is experimenting with photo messaging technology, supplied by Orange Business Solutions, to help save lives and improve the level of treatment given to casualties of serious accidents. Rescue officers who attend the scene of an accident can take photographs of casualties and immediately send the images to the Accident and Emergency Unit at Dunfermline's Queen Margaret Hospital, which can receive the pictures in real time on mobile phones there. "We are giving A & E departments advanced information, so they can determine whether they need to attend the accident scene. It can give specialists advanced notice so they are fully aware of what's going to come through their hospital door," says Fife station officer Graham Hogg. Several other fire services in the UK are taking a keen interest in the trial, he adds. Adding interaction to print Instead of digital technology heralding the demise of printed media, it has brought a new dimension to certain newpapers and magazines. Indeed, it can be argued that those who use it best are most likely to ensure their long-term survival. Of course, we are all familiar with the online versions of traditional media brands, but some pioneers are building closer relationships with their readers through innovative use of SMS. "Magazines can generate a lot of response when you add in a text component," says Pamir Gelenbe, co-founder and director of development, at Flytxt. The firm has been working with media owner Emap for 3 years on titles such as Bliss, J17 and Smash Hits, as well as on some of its radio brands. The Smash Hits loyalty club offers members specail offers via SMS and now numbers 30,000. As Gelenbe points out, the club enables the magazine to find out a lot more about its readers, based on the information that request and the messages they send in. At the same time, this growing database is also a boon for advertisers. "The loyalty club is not just about pushing sales of the magazine, but is a way of tying in sponsors," he say. "It creates a new form of interaction that wasn't possible before." That interaction also helps generate ideas and content for Smash Hits, with the editor publishing some of the best reader emails on subjects as weighty as Gareth Gates' new image. "We think it's no longer about SMS and print, but about mobile opportunities for the newer technologies as they gain popularity. Living Abroad Magazine, the title aimed at expatriates in the UK, has been working in conjunction with iTouch in a similar vein. It recently published a 'mobile enhanced' edition of the magazine, which offered readers many opportunities to vote on topical subjects or enter competitions by texting messages to easy-to-remember short codes. Decisions on editorial content will be made by assesing the responses to the editorial content will be made by assessing the responses to the voting and competitions. The initiative also enables the magazine to form a clearer picture of its readers where they are based. M-commerce Legislation such as the EU e-Money Directive has slowed the growth of m-commerce, but there are some interesting developments happening nevertheless, which go beyond the teen and pre-teen obsession with ringtones. Vodafone entered the m-commerce market in early 2002 with the launch of the Vodafone m-pay bill whereby its customers could buy low-cost items (up to £5) on the internet. Users simply clicked on the m-pay logo displayed and paid through a web site or using WAP services. The Vodafone m-pay cards are an alternative service whereby customers register their credit or debit card online and chose a unique username, password and PIN code. This enables customers to purchase items priced at more that £5 as these will be billed directly to their registerd credit or debit card rather than to their phone bill. In October 2002, the new Vodafone live! service launched where users can download games or ringtones costing £5 or under and charge purchases to their moible phone accounts. Vodafone Live! customers are automatically able to pay for Live! services using m-pay bill while other customers just need to register for the service on the web site. Jeremy Flynn, head of commercial partnerships at Vodafone, feels that m-commerce lends itself well to " impulse and convenience puchasing", and believes that the real success of Vodafone Live! is in encouraging the major brands to become part of its shopping mall. "There are numerous advantages to having your credit card stored on a server", points out Ronan Cremin, product manager for mobile software company Network365. "That way, you don't have to enter all your details every time and if you lose your phone the information is stored elsewhere." Mobile commerce solutions provider TxtOrder has completed a two-month test of a secure mobile payment service with 17 businesses, including the Next Directory, Yamaha, Phones 4 U and Iglu. The service, developed with Barclaycard Merchant Payment Services, supports all Visa, Mastercard, Swithc and JCB cards. The service combines Barclaycards ePDQ payments system with TxtOrder's technology. It costs £495 for merchants to register, with a monthly management fee of £20 and then between 25p and 75p for each transaction or request. "There is no reason why SMS cannot be used as a payment channel for anything you can buy today," says Steve Almond, chief executive officer at TxtOrder. "It's down to business to drive it. The technolgy is there." 12Snap, the mobile marketing and media sales company, is taking a different approach to m-commerce. Earlier this year, it entered into an exlusive partnership with iCoupon to launch the first mobile voucher service in the UK. The service offered both retailsers and brands the ability to transmit bar codes as picture messages, which could then be scanned and intergrated into EPOS (electronic point of sale) systems. In this way, it claims, the loop between mobile marketing and the point of redemption will be closed. "It's a nice model," comments Matt Cotton, client services director at 12Snap. "This opens up vouchering to a whole new audience. A lot of people do not clip coupons, but if they've got a mobile phone and can participate discreetly, that will make a difference." A live trial involving Luminar nightclubs has been carried out and Cotton says he is hopeful that the barcodes will go live with certain retailers by the second quater of next year. Fundraising An appeal by Fauna and Flora international to help protect the gorilla, which ran on the Sunday afternoon BBC programme Lifeline TV fronted by nature guru David Attenborough, saw four times as many people text in as telephoned the call centre, says David Yound Kong, managing director of TekxAppeal. "We feel that it is going to be the new method of interacting with the public at large," continues Young Kong, whose agency has worked on SMS fundraising for other charities, including Marie Curie and St Dunstan's. He cites donor convenience as the main point in its favour, with money being either deducted from the donor's monthly phone bill or from their pre-paid credits. Once they have opted in to an appeal, consumers can be asked to commit to regular donorship. Viral material can also be sent to them, for passing on to like-minded friends, which will help charities widen their donor base. Flytxt, meanwhile, has worked on a number of SMS fundraising campaigns for Comic Relief and its sister charity, Sport Relief. Flytxt's Pamir Gelenbe points out that 'terminator charging', more commonly know as reverse billing, can help charities reduce their costs. For example, donors could choose to sign up to pay 10 for each marketing text messages they receive from the charities they are supporting, thereby "negating diret marketing tools" explains Gelenbe. Working with Radio 1 for Red Nose Day 2003, Comic Relief ran a competition offering consumers the chance to win a football club memorabilia. Entry via SMS cost just £1, along with the standard network charge, and at least 70p went to Comic Relief. An impressive 343,000 entries raised more than £240,000 for the charity. © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. 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