| Mobile's big break |
| Wednesday, 28 April 2004 | |
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Marketing Direct: Mobile Marketing Think Tank - Mobile marketing has not seen the take up the industry had been predicting. But are marketers catching up to the technical possibilities? The Think Tank Panel:Lars Becker, Chairman Flytxt; Ray Anderson, CEO Bango; Nick Wiggin, Head I-Level Mobile; Ian James, MD Chrysalis Mobile; Peter Larsen, VP & General Manager Enpocket; Jeremy Flynn, Director of Commercial Partnerships Vodafone. In comparison to their ATL counterparts, direct marketers have been hugely adaptable creatures, evolving in their outlook and metamorphosing to the ever-changing advertising environment with ease. And yet, this evolutionary progression appears to have come to a standstill for all but the fittest marketers over one particular channel - mobile. Despite the ubiquity of mobile phones, the mobile channel has struggled to get the attention of all but the most adventurous marketers, perceived as it is to be an add-on, or not for their target audience. However, with phone technology increasing (video-streaming, couponing, picture messaging and WAP), are direct marketers now in danger of adapting too slowly and letting the opportunity pass by? This was just one of the questions raised at this month’s Think Tank debate which focused on the mobile channel and where the opportunities lie. Our panellists are all converts to the cause, but this still didn’t mean there was a consensus on everything. According to Lars Becker, chief executive of mobile technology provider Flytxt, a major reason for slower than expected mass acceptance is that while the mobile channel is possibly the most direct form of marketing, it still sits uneasily between disciplines: "Mobile resides somewhere between traditional ATL and BTL marketing," he says. "The former is all about pure branding and the latter is pure data collection. There are opportunities to collect data with mobile, but it is principally a tool to engage interactivity." According to our panellists this should place mobile firmly in the realm of CRM, and interactivity for the brand experience. But it’s easy to see why mobile isn’t being used if it’s hard and fast ROI figures that the marketing director feels pressurised to prove. "In our organisation, we have a phrase that mobile should be like a ‘media-glue’," says Nick Wiggin, head of i-level Mobile. "It’s all about adding an extra level of interactivity on top of other channels. It’s about being integrated and not for one-off campaigns." The one-off blitz was criticised by our panellists for causing marketers to perceive mobile as something that can be done and forgotten about. Becker says companies like his are partially responsible for encouraging this - through campaigns like the Flytxt/ Cadbury’s Txt To Win initiative of 2001 - which he argues was necessary at the time for kick-starting the market. Today though, this one-off approach must alter, argues Jeremy Flynn, director of commercial partnerships at Vodafone. "When texts arrive people are forced to open them, it’s a very intimate relationship which cannot be abused, yet so far campaigns have tended to be bolt-ons, people trying to stretch an existing budget, or begging or borrowing budget from wherever they can. Eventually, we need to reach a position where it is reaching a standalone basis." Buying lists And it is here where the thorny issue of buying lists comes in, something which exposed a distinct difference of opinion. "Burst activity in an uncoordinated way has been encouraged through the availability of lists of supposedly opt-in databases," adds Flynn. "But I think this has to be an absolute no-no because the way in which people receive them means they are seen as spam." Vodafone actually runs its own ‘V-Spam’ service, where handset owners can forward messages they feel are spam to a short-code and the operator will investigate and possibly block them. "No one blames the postman for delivering junk mail," he says, "but operators are seen as allowing spam texts to pass through their networks." Flynn’s point drew disagreement. "I think there’s a huge pent-up demand for services that consumers want and will react on," argues Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango.net, the interactive mobile content provider which also sells ringtones, pictures, music and games on behalf of clients. "I think opt-in lists are still OK if whatever offers being opted-in to match what is being promoted some time later. A lot of companies want lists of this nature urgently because they were sleeping last year, and want to catch up, and this is the quickest way they can." Ian James, MD at Chrysalis Mobile, says he believes Flynn is right. "We really must mind our language. Saying we have ‘lists’ is wrong; people associate it too closely with direct mail, when they’re missing the point that mobile should clearly be interactivity." Interactivity For James, interactivity is about developing your own lists and buying-in to the brand direct, something that may take time, but results in strong loyalty. This year Chrysalis was the first radio station to introduce MMS campaigns to its Galaxy FM listeners. It began mobile marketing in 2001, developing the Heart 106.2 and Galaxy Clubs, and recently signed up its 100,000th member. "For us mobile is about encouraging people to use their phones more and stay in-tune with the station," he says. "This means educating DJs to feel confident using it for text-ins and running promotions they feel listeners get something from. We know we have better response rates over time without people dropping off. This shows how well mobile marketing will work." But even Chrysalis needs to make money from mobile, and although James says data is gathered on the back of good interactivity (and not the other way round), the database is shared with partners who can run their own promotions under the Galaxy brand. "We let brands use our lists, but only as part of an integrated campaign; I use the word selling with caution," he says. "What we’re interested in is adding another dimension to an already great radio experience. We can take core listeners to engage in new promotions." According to Becker, there is a distinction between selling and renting lists that fit with the owner’s brand propositions - and Flytxt gives access to data to third parties for one-off access. However, this practice comes back to the whole single use argument which isn’t agreed to be best practice. "We’re still not seeing massive growth in mobile campaigns that get to the heart of what that company is doing and which are used for prolonged periods of time," argues Peter Larsen, senior VP and general manager of Enpocket, the mobile marketing agency. However, he thinks this is slowly changing. "We are announcing a major project with William Hill this week that texts registrants odds for similar events to those they have already betted on. It’s totally linked to its CRM strategy and it’s not a bolt-on but an ongoing commitment." William Hill is an example of a campaign that doesn’t need to be sexy to succeed. It relies on simple SMS, and, predicts Anderson, will do incredibly well because of an often forgotten element to mobile marketing - the viral element. "This is a hugely underestimated benefit of mobile," he says "I’ve seen tactical uses of it where sending out 100 texts produces 300 replies." But herein lies another nub. If SMS works fine, should marketers bother with all the other technologies just for the sake of it? "I think there’s plenty left to do with simple texting," argues Flynn. While plenty nod, Becker is unconvinced. "I’ve got no doubt text will remain dominant for the next four to five years, but we can’t ignore new technology." "The problem is how do you convince a board that you should use multimedia content, WAP and everything else, when a much smaller proportion of people have these facilities on their phone?" asks Wiggin. According to Enpocket, this assumption is being challenged. A recent report showed the number of consumers using MMS had grown by 40 per cent in the last quarter alone - to 37 per cent of 18-24 year olds. This, argues Larsen, is compelling evidence that marketers shouldn’t stay behind the times. It’s a point Anderson agrees with. "We did a campaign for a regional paper, sending 560,000 communications to readers inviting them to browse the paper’s website via their mobile. We were flabbergasted to see that 160,000 did just this." "2004 could be the year couponing finally takes off," argues Becker. He revealed exclusively to our Think Tank that Flytxt is launching the world’s first nationwide coupon scheme for Orange. Called ‘Orange Wednesdays’, Orange is promoting a two-for-one offer on any cinema ticket on a Wednesday for Orange customers only. What’s significant, says Becker, is less the fact that the scheme is rolling out to 500 cinemas UK-wide, but Flytxt is supporting it by developing and installing the scanning device at each cinema which Orange subscribers receive by SMS after texting a message to a special short-code. "A lack of this level of support has always prevented couponing taking off," says Becker. "This level of commitment is just as important now as the original ‘txt-to-win’ trailblazers from a few years ago." Reaching maturity "Mobile marketing has grown up; we’re in far more exciting times," argues Wiggin. "There has been criticism that marketers have been procrastinating about trying new ways to reach this market, but this type of news will be just the injection we’re looking for. Agencies still have a lot of pride when it comes to saying they did things first, so hopefully this will continue." The challenge for marketers, it seems, is no longer a technological one, but conceptual one. "It’s no longer the case that this is only a youth channel anymore," chips in James. "Our Heart listeners - women in their mid 30s - are at least more, if not higher responders, than our 18-24 year old targets." And if 2004 will be good for vouchers, 2005, argues Flynn, will finally see MMS reaching maturity too. Of course, that depends on a further evolutionary jump, but the morphing is starting to happen, and hopefully this time few will want to be left behind. © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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