"What's All Of The Fuss About Mobile Marketing Methods Today?

Mobile Advertising For The Masses
The adventure continues….
The emergence of empowered individuals, the advance of so-called digital natives – individuals
who have grown up with the Internet – and the abundance of applications designed to give
consumers more of a say in how they create, access, and enjoy content have transformed
communication and, more specifically, the business of advertising.
As I have argued on MSearchGroove - the knowledge resource I founded to provide analysis and
commentary on mobile advertising, mobile search, and social media - and in Vol 1 of this series of white papers (Mobile advertising for newbies), advertising is in urgent need of redefinition. It must be useful, not intrusive. More importantly, it must be perceived as valuable information that is somehow relevant to what matters to consumers most.
To be clear, the new mobile advertising paradigm is still about push. However, there is an
increasingly important element of pull, allowing (empowering) people to choose advertising in tune with their individual lifestyles and life stages.
Deliver the right ad to the right individual in the correct context?
Despite the phenomenal growth of mobile advertising, brands have yet to reach advertising
nirvana—that heady place where targeting tools allow them to aim for specific groups with offers
specially tailored to their interests. But mobile social networks are where it's bound to happen first
(and already happening!).
These virtual spaces are a perfect match with how we choose to lead our mobile lives. We live,
work, and play, and in a new collective state of hyper-connectedness. In fact, we no longer alert others to when we are online in our mobile communities; that's our new default state. Instead, we let our friends know when we go to sleep, take a bath, or just plan to be incommunicado for an extended period of time.
So, what is the impact of our always-on existence on industries that rely on the mobile Web for
communications, business growth, and interactive marketing? In a word: profound.
The mobile phone, a personal device we have at all times, has gained a new importance as a
socializing tool. We know from recent research (which I detail in the next section) that an
increasing number of people are flocking to mobile social networks to stay in touch with friends
(and make new friends) and share information and memorable moments they capture with their mobile devices.

It's a trend that changes relationships, transforms identities, and creates new communities,
allowing clever brands and media companies unique insight into their target audience if the mobile social network collects the right customer information and employs the proper mobile analytics solutions to wring value out of the data.
Fortunately for advertisers, an increasing number of mobile social networks have developed the
corporate DNA to achieve just this. By building trust, encouraging open, two-way communication,
and harnessing opt-in to collect key socio-demographic data (gender, age, location – the works!)
from their members with their permission, mobile social networks are able to create a wealth of
opportunities for advertisers eager to gain valuable insight into their target segments.
It's granular detail that goes a long way toward better targeting, allowing the ad networks
managed by mobile communities to create highly relevant matches with potential advertisers and
deliver an optimal user experience for all. The transparency of the interaction is what drives
members to share more personal data than they might normally volunteer The purpose of this post is to provide a reality-check, road test the ad networks offered by three leading mobile social networks, and document the level of targeting each provides advertisers. I conclude with an analysis of the results of the three campaigns, paying special attention to the mobile analytics tools and capabilities offered by each mobile social network, and the extent to which they enable publishers and advertisers to plan and execute more targeted mobile advertising campaigns.
Which network(s) provide you the insight and analytics tools to deliver your message to the people you want to reach? My observations are designed to help you make the choice that is right for you.

The next big thing
The power of mobile begins with its reach. There are twice as many mobile devices as TV sets,
three times as many mobile subscribers as Internet users, and four times as many mobile
phones as PCs. Mobile is also very versatile as a media channel if we consider that it is digital,
multimedia-capable, personal and interactive. It not only has the ability to deliver broadcast
content. A growing number of mobile content companies and network operators are convinced
the mobile will be the main device people use to enjoy radio and TV programming anytime, anywhere.
The capabilities of the mobile phone are uniquely suited to generate massive new mobile advertising opportunities:

• Everyone has them (high volume)
• Everyone carries them around (always on, always connected)
• Everyone can use their user input mechanisms to interact with brands/publishers (camera phones/SMS text/voice)
• Everyone can use them to pay for content and services (a built-in payment mechanism)

Indeed, mobile can replicate everything that all previous six mass media can do. It's what
Ahonen tells me will make mobile "at least as disruptive as the Internet has been so far."
People can consume newspapers, read magazine articles and books, listen to podcasts and
radio, buy songs and video games and even watch whole movies on their mobile phone.

Advertising is content
In his July column in Technology Weekly, Andrew Bud, Executive Chairman of mBlox, a
company that operates a major mobile transaction network, summed up the potential of the
mobile advertising market simply and succinctly. The market value is "over-estimated in the
short term and under-estimated in the long term."
Granted there are issues – such as device and operating systems fragmentation, confusion in
the emerging value chain, pricing, and a lack of sufficient inventory (issues well outside the
scope of this post) – which could seriously slow the growth of mobile advertising. (In
fact, these disconnects are expertly examined and discussed by Chetan Sharma and his
colleagues Joe Herzog and Victor Melfi in their milestone book Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market.)

Despite these disconnects, there is a significant increase in the number of mobile advertising
success stories documented on a daily basis on news sites such as MobiAdNews and Mobile
Marketer Daily.
Brands are getting on board – but that is only one driver.
We'll likely see an increase in the number of mobile campaigns as more mobile services (such
as mobile voice/text and data plans) are increasingly subsidized by mobile advertising.

• Virgin Mobile's Sugar Mama service offers mobile users extra voice minutes in exchange for viewing targeted mobile advertising.
• South Africa's Vodacom uses advertising to subsidize mobile data services for much of its pre-paid customer base.
• Australian MVNO ComTel Corporation, Ltd. has launched SMSPup Mobile, the country’s first advertising subsidized mobile phone service.

Advertising is results
Mobile advertising is an effective vehicle to reach and engage with people
– and the click-through rates literally speak volumes.

"People try to make this comparison 

between online and mobile and if
you look at the click-through rates you tend
to get from an online banner it’s
microscopic. It's .02 percent, it’s .05
percent. If you look at mobile advertising,
you’re seeing 1-3 percent click-through
rates as an industry standard." 
Aaron Watkins

VP of Mobile Integration

The Hyperfactory

"Mobile ads deliver high click rates
averaging above 1 percent, plus high conversions rates – 5x better than
online advertising for some products and services." 
Eric Eller

Senior VP Marketing

Millennial Media

"Mobile ad click-through rates fluctuate from 2 percent to 20 percent. But they are
consistently higher than online. Mobile is also vastly more effective, in part because
the lack of clutter. One banner ad per mobile Web page is more engaging than the dozens
that crowd the average Internet website. In fact, one of Nokia's advertisers reports ads on
mobile are outperforming Web ads by eight times."
Diana LaGattuta
Global marketing
Nokia Interactive

Get The Edge
Mobile social networking companies provide advertisers granular detail on their members (gained
through detailed questionnaires and opt-in processes) and deep insights into the data that
matters, such as gender, location, and the mobile devices members use to interact with
advertising and – hopefully – click-through to convert or complete the campaign's call to action.
Granted, it's great data, and it goes a long way toward helping advertisers to adjust their
strategies and execute their future campaigns. However, when the end-game is all about getting a
big(ger) picture view of what you achieved and where you missed the mark, then a more
comprehensive analytics solution is a must. In practical terms, the two are complementary – not
competitive – and the combination pegs the needle.

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