| Channel Swapping? |
| Wednesday, 16 February 2005 | |
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Precision Marketing - The rapid proliferation of mobile handsets with multimedia capability means viral marketing services via your phone could be a reality as early as next year. Are customers and clients ready to take advantage of the benefits of MMS? David Reed investigates Christmas could be the tipping point. Although it might be March before it becomes mainstream. But certainly during the first half of next year the use of mobile phone 'push' technology to market brands virally will break through. While some brands are already early adopters of this practice, notably Pixar's launch of The Incredibles and Ford's Ka, most marketers have yet to try multimedia services (MMS), let alone encourage consumers to share branded content. Much of this is down to concerns about the technology, how it works, how campaigns can be tracked - and whether consumers know how to use it.The availability of phones with the right technology is rising fast. By June, 46 per cent of handsets were already connected to GPRS. This is the critical mechanism that allows users of both 2G and 3G phones to receive MMS and WAP messages. "Mid-2005 will be the tipping point," predicts Jonathan Bass, managing director of mobile marketing agency Incentivated. By then, the penetration of handsets which have this facility switched on will be well over the halfway mark, giving marketers a big audience to aim at. "In 2002, our clients didn't know what this technology was. By 2003, they knew, but they did not want to spend their marketing budget on it. In 2004, we have been very busy working with clients and agencies to put big figures for this into their budgets for 2005," he says. Liz Mackenzie, marketing manager for mobile video company Forbidden Technologies, makes a similar forecast: "There is a big campaign on now to get handsets shipped with GPRS switched on. Traditionally, it has been up to the user to turn it on, and it has not been a user-friendly process. Now phones are coming already enabled." Awareness of the ability to download content has grown substantially, although use of these services still lags significantly behind. According to research by O2 among mobile phone users aged over 15, 80 per cent know about downloadable ringtones, but only 31 per cent have actually done this. Picture messaging is the second most popular service, with 26 per cent sharing images with friends, out of 71 per cent who were aware they could do this. Three-quarters of phone users are also aware of services like news and sport, weather, games and icons, but only between 17 and 20 per cent have used them. This is where the fun begins for marketers. As mobile users get used to sending each other content, it opens the way for viral marketing. Getting friends to push your message around a group could be every bit as successful as with email. Perhaps even more so, if 3G phones get users into the habit of downloading video clips. "The USP we have is that we offer a branded video player that people can share," says Mackenzie. The phone user downloads an application that carries the branding and enables them to play clips on their phone. This can then be shared with other users."Content owners can make money from that by putting in digital rights management so that the clip arrives locked. The person has to have an SMS conversation to unlock it," she says. Forbidden has coined the term 'viewtoothing' for the sharing of videos between mobiles using Bluetooth. The technique was this year put to work to promote the British film Layer Cake, for example. The only downside is the speed; it can take up to two minutes to share a video clip. The potential for consumer goods brands that have sponsored sports or pop stars is obvious. They can offer exclusive content which others will want to share. It could even become a self-liquidating promotion by offering content in return for proofs of purchase or small payments. Video material could also be leveraged into this space. Cult ads for the likes of Tango or Pot Noodle would be obvious candidates. And a lot of guerrilla marketing could move into the mobile arena. But there are some technical hurdles to overcome. Handsets differ greatly in their capabilities, screens and speed, presenting potential obstacles to viral campaigns. "When it comes to the quality of the screen and what you can do on a phone, Motorola is the lowest common denominator," says Bass. His company has built a unique database of every handset on the market and its technical specifications. It allows clients to identify whether there is any point firing out MMS ads or promoting a WAP portal. When it comes to getting consumers to share content using Bluetooth, for example, Bass sees this as a red herring. "More phones have WAP than MMS, more have MMS than infra-red (IR), and more have IR than Bluetooth," he says. "There are parallels with other channels, like radio. When FM launched, most radio sets only had medium and long wave. The same is true of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and Radio Data System (RDS) - not every machine works in the same way and has those features." In addition, younger mobile users transfer content on memory sticks, which do not allow swapping to be tracked. Bass recommends that campaigns be kicked off using SMS to direct consumers to a WAP portal. It should also be possible to download to the phone using a PC and email. "It has to be universal, and platform or connection agnostic, for it to appeal to the masses," he says. The limitations should not deter marketers from thinking about how to add mobile viral marketing to their plans, however. "This is going to be huge. Bluetooth is already happening. We see people sharing content. The position is similar with MMS. It is about to happen," says Pamir Gelenbe, co-founder of mobile marketing agency Flytxt. The main barrier at the moment is that each MMS download costs the user several pounds. Unless there is a very compelling proposition - and, even better, a chance to get the cost back - ads and marketing messages are not going to become top downloads. "You have to build compelling content and make it clear how consumers can share it, then just let them do it. There have been some very good campaigns, but no single one has blown me away," Pamir Gelenbe says. The use of mobile coupons, ticketing and the Orange Wednesday cinema ticket giveaways are building the foundations for more interactive campaigns. "It wouldn't surprise me to see mobile-only person-to-person marketing," says Pamir Gelenbe. New services are also growing up around MMS. In Japan, consumers can use mobile phone cameras to snap book barcodes in stores and check whether the title is available cheaper online. Despite the growing penetration levels, use remains low. But that should be good news for marketers. "As consumers, we're a lot less used to getting funny or interesting stuff forwarded to our phones, and each item has massively more cut-through," says Nick Gillett, founder of digital direct marketing agency C360. "Secondly, because consumers can exchange items face-to-face via Bluetooth, there's a greater social aspect to mobile viral than with email," he says. Marketers need to bear this in mind, since it implies a far higher level of endorsement when a message gets passed on. Gillett's agency put this to use in the British Heart Foundation's recent campaign to stop people smoking. But he also agrees with Bass' view that, at the moment, viral campaigns have to offer multiple access channels. "In our campaign for Capcom, we used both SMS and email, giving consumers the choice about which channel they use to pass information on to friends," says Gillett. Despite the rapid evolution of both the technology and consumer habits, some marketers are still wary about the appeal of MMS or Bluetooth for viral marketing. "It is my view that the limitations are not insignificant - network and handset incompatibility being key," says Nick McConnell, director of sales and marketing at Broadsystem. "The risk is that these limitations will become more noticeable - irritating even - than the wonders of the product. Marketers made a big mistake with SMS - running before they had learnt to walk. This resulted in a deluge of SMS marketing messages flooding the inboxes of consumers, much to their widely publicised annoyance," he says. Mobile marketing is subject to the same legislation as email, with an opt-in required for unsolicited messages. Being aware of this is essential, not least because the cost of receiving MMS is much higher than SMS. Degrading a powerful new medium by overloading it with spam would be a disaster. Dynmark specialises in PC-to-mobile messaging and is extremely sensitive to the issue. Chief executive Oscar Jenkins says: "Providers like us become involved when complaints or reports of abuse are received. As a company providing SMS gateway and bulk SMS software, our licensing is very clear - we reserve the right to suspend and cancel the use of services if they are misused." With the experience of spam and bulk SMS to guide them, marketers should not make the same mistake a third time. Of more concern is whether viral MMS will be effective and measurable. To this end, Incentivated is working with media buyers Billetts and Media Audits to establish a common standard for reporting on campaigns. Until then, the channel will be waiting to be used. Post-Christmas, the volume of handsets will be significant enough to be tempting. Marketers need to be imaginative about how to make use of them. According to Mackenzie, "it is a slow burn". © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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