Thursday, April 3, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
WAYS TO THINK ABOUT MOBILE AND MOBILE MARKETING
When I research a new technology, I try to find an analogy to help put aspects of it into understandable “buckets”. So, using SMS is like… or selling ringtones is like….
Mobile is Not Like PCs
The biggest mistake I have made, and I’ve made it for years, is to think about the phone like I think about PCs and the Web. I have erroneously tried to categorize mobile apps and technologies as analogous to aspects of using the Internet with a laptop.
This is absolutely wrong. Phones are absolutely different. How?
1. A phone is personal. It’s is more “yours” than a computer that someone shares with their parents or roommate or other students in the library. You carry it with you everywhere. Thus, personalization – of making it yours – is more of an option, and more attractive to the user. It is worth the effort.
2. A phone is fashion. A desktop is more akin to a doorknob than a cell phone. It sits somewhere. It doesn’t go with you. Except for the couple of percent of Apple users, it really isn’t expected to be fashionable. OK, there are now PCs being designed for looks, but most are still putty color. A laptop is an appliance. It does things for you. Like a refrigerator. Or a TV. A sexy laptop can be a status symbol for a geek, but generally people keep a computer for a lot longer than a pair of Vans. And if I am really fickle, I can get a novelty faceplate.
3. A phone is a badge. It is a form of self expression. Is that overstatement? I don’t think so. Look how Samsung sells the Juke, their new music phone:
It’s not perfect, but it works for me. You may find a better one. But throughout the rest of the document I’ll use this analogy to help set some logical parameters for marketing activity on the mobile device.
Mobile is Not Like PCs
The biggest mistake I have made, and I’ve made it for years, is to think about the phone like I think about PCs and the Web. I have erroneously tried to categorize mobile apps and technologies as analogous to aspects of using the Internet with a laptop.
This is absolutely wrong. Phones are absolutely different. How?
1. A phone is personal. It’s is more “yours” than a computer that someone shares with their parents or roommate or other students in the library. You carry it with you everywhere. Thus, personalization – of making it yours – is more of an option, and more attractive to the user. It is worth the effort.
2. A phone is fashion. A desktop is more akin to a doorknob than a cell phone. It sits somewhere. It doesn’t go with you. Except for the couple of percent of Apple users, it really isn’t expected to be fashionable. OK, there are now PCs being designed for looks, but most are still putty color. A laptop is an appliance. It does things for you. Like a refrigerator. Or a TV. A sexy laptop can be a status symbol for a geek, but generally people keep a computer for a lot longer than a pair of Vans. And if I am really fickle, I can get a novelty faceplate.
3. A phone is a badge. It is a form of self expression. Is that overstatement? I don’t think so. Look how Samsung sells the Juke, their new music phone:
Now look how Dell sells a laptop:
Different, huh? Now phones have brand names like Chocolate. And they are deliberately designed to be absolutely sexy. Check out this new model from LG, the VX9400:
4. They are unique. With PCs, I pick form (laptop or desktop), screen size, speed, and graphics card. Possibly color. And of course I am speaking generally here. With cell phones I get colors, camera or no, size, orientation, color or no, Internet or no, QWERTY keyboard or no, different data capabilities, positioning (is it a smart phone, a music phone, a texting phone, etc.) – the list goes on. I get to pick “my phone” versus the PC I can afford or need.
5. They are cheap. Throwaway, or almost. Lots more people can come up with $49 or $99 or $149, or even $299 than can come up with a thousand dollars or more. I can get the small Sanyo S1 for nothing from Nextel. The new Mac Air will set me back more than $2,000 when I get all the add-ons that I need. Maybe a better term than cheap is affordable status.
6. They are aural/visual. The PC web is changing fast, but it is still dominated by text content.
7. They are tiny. Supremely portable. The new Mac Air requires a bag to schlep it around. Or an interoffice envelope. ;-) Even the Asus EEE microcomputer is a bit big to take to the malt shop with you. Or wherever the kids go these days.
8. They are full of secrets. Features that morons like me will never find. Driven by SMS language that is largely unintelligible by the older set, and constantly evolving/malleable. Secrets are sexy. Secrets let me show off.
9. Everything costs money with mobile. And people seem to be fine with that. While riding the train home this week I spoke with a young woman who had a Bayonne ringtone. I asked what she paid and she said $2 or $3. I also asked her if she had ever downloaded a song online without paying for it and she said “I never pay for songs.” So what made her willing to shell out $3 for 11 notes of a song, but not willing to pay 99 cents for the whole song on her computer? “Because this is my phone.” I am not saying it was profound from a debate club standpoint, but it certainly says something sociologically.
The Car Analogy
I haven’t found a perfect analogy yet, but right now I use the car. It’s not cheap, but it fulfills a lot of the other criteria listed above. And if you think about cell phones like you think about cars, it makes what sorts of marketing
people are willing to tolerate more telegraphic.
1. I do not want to hear an ad every time I turn it on.
2. I don’t want it covered with ads.
3. I don’t want it to be like a Model T – any color you want as long as it is back.
4. I want a new one. More or less constantly.
5. I might want an Eddie Bauer branded interior, if it’s nice. Just like one might want a Black Eyed Peas wallpaper or something.
6. I might want to watch a video if I am in the back seat.
7. I don’t want to feel like someone else is driving when I use it. Just like I don’t want heavy handed marketing adjusting my phone features or getting in the way of what I want to do.
8. I am willing to buy XM just like someone might be willing to pay Boost to get music pumped to their handset.
9. I am willing to pay for GPS just like a $10 data package including map access might be very nice and worth the price.
10. I want it to offer my sort of utility. Good mileage or 50 cubic feet of cargo room or whatever. Just like my life is better suited to a Treo than a Chocolate.
It’s not perfect, but it works for me. You may find a better one. But throughout the rest of the document I’ll use this analogy to help set some logical parameters for marketing activity on the mobile device.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Glad To See The Munchkins Got Voiceover Work After Dorothy Got Home
Particularly attractive was the hay bale hair demo
Mobile for Dingbats Part Two: Mobile Terms and Facts
HOW A MOBILE PHONE WORKS
The World’s mobile infrastructure is basically a vast network linking walkie talkies. The signal for your phone travels from a sender via a cell tower near them, to the main network. If the call is to a land line, it then enters the land line system. If the call is to another cell phone, it travels through a phone network until it reaches a tower near where you are. Your phone detects it and presto! you’re talking to Mom.
The towers themselves are distributed across the country in varying levels of density. This is why you get a good signal in some places, and a bad one in others.
How the System Knows Where You Are
When you turn your phone on, it essentially listens for a signal from nearby towers. It responds with a signal of its own that tells the closest tower as well as other nearby towers where you are.
That’s how your calls can find my 510 area code phone when I am in the 212 area code. And how you can retain a phone number from one area code even if you move to another area.
Jumping from Cell to Cell
Essentially, when you are moving while on a cellular call, the phone is communicating with two towers when you are nearing the edge of one cell and entering another. If all goes well, the new tower will pick up your transmissions before the other tower drops your transmissions. This is called a handoff. When
your calls are dropped it’s often because of a failure in this process, for example that two cellular areas are not juxtaposed together.
All Cells Are Not the Same
We’ve all heard about cellular companies making towers look like palm trees and other ambient objects to better blend into the environment. But all towers are not the same. Macrocells are large service area cells. Microcells offers smaller coverage areas. A cell provider might add microcells in very populous areas or along a major freeway to help mitigate issues with network capacity. Picocells are still smaller transceivers that serve a very small area like the floor of a high rise.
Not all are towers, BTW.
SOME OF THE LANGUAGE OF MOBILE
Let’s talk terminology for a minute. Mobile has a lot of lingo. The Mobile Marketing Association offers a 57 page glossary of mobile terms. And I encourage you to download it for reference. But here’s the two minute drill of the stuff you’ll probably hear and read most often.
APPLICATION: The software that enables an action.
APPLICATION PROVIDER: Provider of an application. So, for example, Vindigo provides a great number of applications to its users.
ARPU: Average revenue per user. This refers to the amount of money a subscriber generates for a carrier. This would include, for example, the monthly charges plus the carrier’s share of 3rd party services like ringtones and the like.
BLUETOOTH: A system that allows a mobile user to send and receive data over a short distance. Blue tooth is empowered through a special chip.
BREW: Literally Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless. Open source application environment for Mobile. Works with both CDMA (think:”old technology”) and GSM (think “new” technology). Supported by less phones and carriers than WAP.
CARRIER: The company that provides phone service to the consumer. ATT and Verizon are carriers.
CLICK TO CALL: By clicking on a link on a mobile Web Site, the user automatically initiates a call. Ideal for direct marketers.
CHURN: The percentage of people who leave one carrier and transfer service to another.
CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS NOTICE: An FTC standard that governs how charges, instructions, and other critical brand information must be communicated. This is relevant to the marketer, for example, as a standard by which costs of a piece of premium content, like a ringtone, must be disclosed.
DECK: A deck is basically the portal or walled garden provided by the carrier that offers content to the user. Content could include news, sports, weather, or opinion – essentially anything that a web portal offers. Decks also offer content for sale, like wallpapers or ringtones.
G, as in 1G 2G 3G: G refers to generation. 1G is the first generation of mobile phones and technologies. 2G, the second, 3G, the third. G1 generally means analog technologies. G2 means more advanced services AND data services like web browsing, etc. 3G refers to high speed data transmission. From a marketer’s perspective that means data services that are “always on” and that allow transmission of video and other heavy bandwidth content.
MMS: Literally Multimedia Messaging Service. These are messaging services using multimedia, including photos, video, and audio.
MVNO: A company that provides service to customers using another company’s network. For example, Boost Mobile has a direct relationship with customers, but does not have its own network of signals and towers. Instead, it leases bandwidth from Sprint.
NUMBER PORTABILITY: The ability to retain a phone number as you transfer service between carriers. Years ago, one of the disincentives to changing providers was that you lost your phone number. No more.
OFF DECK AND ON DECK: Carriers provide access to certain content within their portals or walled gardens, while intenet access lets consumers buy content outside those gardens. So, for example, if you look for ringtones on your phone, the first place the carrier will want you to search is within their portal. Content on the portal is “on deck.” Content available on the web, by contrast, and not within the walled garden of the carrier is called “off deck.”
The term is relevant to the marketer because carriers prefer consumers to buy on deck, because they get a cut. Carriers do not get a cut of off deck sales, so third parties, like ring tone makers, often prefer offdeck sales. At the same time, third parties also vie for placement on deck because on deck sales can be an important source of volume. In the US, a greater percentage of content is sold on deck versus in Europe and Asia. US carriers make more effort to keep sales on deck, and US consumers seem to be less aware of off deck content.
OPT-IN: Purchases via mobile phone typically require an opt-in process in which the buyer must confirm their willingness to be charged.
1. Single opt-in refers to a process that makes a person confirm their understanding of purchase when an item is ordered.
2. Double opt-in adds the extra step of requiring the user to confirm a purchase by responding to an SMS message they receive after making their purchase
3. Triple opt-In (which is now uncommon) requires the user to respond to TWO SMS messages before they are charged.
Carriers demand opt-in purchase confirmations because of the potential for confusion and their desire to avoid billing disputes with their customers.
PAYG or PAY AS YOU GO or PREPAID: All three terms refer to phone service that is purchased by consumers as an alternative to having a credit card account with a carrier. Pre-pay helps people too young to have credit, or with bad credit, or whose bill payers want to control their monthly pone expenses, get some cellular service. All major carriers offer PAYG programs
PREMIUM SMS: Premium Text Messaging refers to special programs that require an additional fee to subscribe. Examples of Premium Text subscription campaigns are:
1. Sports alerts: MLB, NFL etc.
2. Weather alerts, jokes, stock quotes, horoscopes, etc..
3. Trivia.
4. Mobile coupons.
5. Interactive TV shows and voting such as Idol.
Standard messaging rates always apply along with premium charges.
RINGTONE: The sounds you hear when your phone rings. Can be anything from a basic ring, to a section of a song, or dialogue. There are three basic kinds that offer three different levels of fidelity:
1. Monotone: The most basic variety, reproduces the basic melody of a song.
2. Polytone: More closely approximates the actually instrumental melody of a song.
3. Truetone: A real sample of a recording.
Older phones tend not to be truetone enabled. Newer phones use true tone compatibility as a selling point.
RINGBACK TONE: A “ringtone” that plays to the caller when calling a phone.
SHORT CODE: A short code is a set of four numbers that substitutes for a full ten digit phone number in mobile. Marketers like short codes because they make it easier for consumers to respond. The most famous short codes in America are the four digit contestant numbers that Idol uses to collect votes from ATT subscribers. Instead of dialing 1-866-IDOLS02 (1-866-436-5702), for example, users simply text VOTE to a number like 6766. Short codes can be great for use on highway billboards, where you are relying on someone to remember 4 digits like IDOL versus 1-800-555-1244.
SMS: Short message service or “text”. It is a “short” message because a text cannot have more than 160 characters.
WALLPAPERS: A graphic that serves as the background for a phone screen. Wallpapers are a popular form of personalization content, and many consumers are willing to pay for attractive ones.
WAP: The most common application environment.
Those are some essentials. And I promise not to use even these very often in the rest of this document. I promised plain English.
One term that is tough to avoid is “data services”. This is used to refer to non-voice functions that a phone may offer. Data can take many forms, from text to audio to video to a Flava Flav wallpaper. A game is a data service. While data services makes it sounds like we're talking about business applications, it really refers to anything other than voice that a phone transmits or receives.
THE FACTS OF MOBILE
There were 177 Million mobile telephone customers in the US in 2007.
Use of Data Services
Of those 177Million, the following statistics outline their usage rates of different cellular data services:
Percent of Users Who
Use the Service Now
Send and receive text 35%
Take photos 28%
Play games 22%
Access the Internet 14%
Send/receive email 8%
Perform searches 7%
Send and receive IMs 7%
Play music 6%
Record video clips 6%
Get mobile maps 4%
Watch video 2%
(Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
In addition, many consumers have stated their intent to use more data services in the future.
Percent of Users Who Don’t
Use a Service Now But Plan to
In the Future
Get mobile maps 47%
Send/receive email 24%
Perform searches 24%
Play music 19%
Take still photos 19%
Record video clips 17%
Access the Internet 16%
Watch video 14%
Send/receive SMS 13%
Play games 12%
Send/receive IMs 11%
(Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
So mobile campaigns can certainly achieve critical mass in many categories so as to warrant the effort. But the data also point to likely explosive growth over the next 1-2 years.
Age continues to be a key predictor of digital usage. While the information is somewhat dated, research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that teen usage of SMS, for example, is more than eight times higher than that of seniors.
As SMS is the most developed data service in the US, figure for many other technologies like ringtones and wallpapers are even more age skewed.
Race is also a predictor of digital behavior. African American and Hispanics tend to use cell phones more and are quicker to adopt data technologies. They also tend to use such technologies more frequently.
Men tend to adopt new mobile technologies slightly faster than women, but the differences are small.
One of the key trends in mobile usage, in addition to use of the applications listed above, is the growth in users of mobile for social media. Major social networks like MySpace have mobile offerings, and new mobile-only social networks have been launched as well. Wikipedia lists the following as major mobile social networks:
• Jumbuck
• AirG
• Mocospace
• Bluepulse
Also according to Wikipedia, the first two listed above have agreements with specific carriers, while the second two work across carriers.
GPS navigation will likely drive enormous growth in the already brisk pace of growth in mobile social, as location based communities can freely develop.
Tomorrow: How to Think About Mobile
The World’s mobile infrastructure is basically a vast network linking walkie talkies. The signal for your phone travels from a sender via a cell tower near them, to the main network. If the call is to a land line, it then enters the land line system. If the call is to another cell phone, it travels through a phone network until it reaches a tower near where you are. Your phone detects it and presto! you’re talking to Mom.
The towers themselves are distributed across the country in varying levels of density. This is why you get a good signal in some places, and a bad one in others.
How the System Knows Where You Are
When you turn your phone on, it essentially listens for a signal from nearby towers. It responds with a signal of its own that tells the closest tower as well as other nearby towers where you are.
That’s how your calls can find my 510 area code phone when I am in the 212 area code. And how you can retain a phone number from one area code even if you move to another area.
Jumping from Cell to Cell
Essentially, when you are moving while on a cellular call, the phone is communicating with two towers when you are nearing the edge of one cell and entering another. If all goes well, the new tower will pick up your transmissions before the other tower drops your transmissions. This is called a handoff. When
your calls are dropped it’s often because of a failure in this process, for example that two cellular areas are not juxtaposed together.
All Cells Are Not the Same
We’ve all heard about cellular companies making towers look like palm trees and other ambient objects to better blend into the environment. But all towers are not the same. Macrocells are large service area cells. Microcells offers smaller coverage areas. A cell provider might add microcells in very populous areas or along a major freeway to help mitigate issues with network capacity. Picocells are still smaller transceivers that serve a very small area like the floor of a high rise.
Not all are towers, BTW.
SOME OF THE LANGUAGE OF MOBILE
Let’s talk terminology for a minute. Mobile has a lot of lingo. The Mobile Marketing Association offers a 57 page glossary of mobile terms. And I encourage you to download it for reference. But here’s the two minute drill of the stuff you’ll probably hear and read most often.
APPLICATION: The software that enables an action.
APPLICATION PROVIDER: Provider of an application. So, for example, Vindigo provides a great number of applications to its users.
ARPU: Average revenue per user. This refers to the amount of money a subscriber generates for a carrier. This would include, for example, the monthly charges plus the carrier’s share of 3rd party services like ringtones and the like.
BLUETOOTH: A system that allows a mobile user to send and receive data over a short distance. Blue tooth is empowered through a special chip.
BREW: Literally Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless. Open source application environment for Mobile. Works with both CDMA (think:”old technology”) and GSM (think “new” technology). Supported by less phones and carriers than WAP.
CARRIER: The company that provides phone service to the consumer. ATT and Verizon are carriers.
CLICK TO CALL: By clicking on a link on a mobile Web Site, the user automatically initiates a call. Ideal for direct marketers.
CHURN: The percentage of people who leave one carrier and transfer service to another.
CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS NOTICE: An FTC standard that governs how charges, instructions, and other critical brand information must be communicated. This is relevant to the marketer, for example, as a standard by which costs of a piece of premium content, like a ringtone, must be disclosed.
DECK: A deck is basically the portal or walled garden provided by the carrier that offers content to the user. Content could include news, sports, weather, or opinion – essentially anything that a web portal offers. Decks also offer content for sale, like wallpapers or ringtones.
G, as in 1G 2G 3G: G refers to generation. 1G is the first generation of mobile phones and technologies. 2G, the second, 3G, the third. G1 generally means analog technologies. G2 means more advanced services AND data services like web browsing, etc. 3G refers to high speed data transmission. From a marketer’s perspective that means data services that are “always on” and that allow transmission of video and other heavy bandwidth content.
MMS: Literally Multimedia Messaging Service. These are messaging services using multimedia, including photos, video, and audio.
MVNO: A company that provides service to customers using another company’s network. For example, Boost Mobile has a direct relationship with customers, but does not have its own network of signals and towers. Instead, it leases bandwidth from Sprint.
NUMBER PORTABILITY: The ability to retain a phone number as you transfer service between carriers. Years ago, one of the disincentives to changing providers was that you lost your phone number. No more.
OFF DECK AND ON DECK: Carriers provide access to certain content within their portals or walled gardens, while intenet access lets consumers buy content outside those gardens. So, for example, if you look for ringtones on your phone, the first place the carrier will want you to search is within their portal. Content on the portal is “on deck.” Content available on the web, by contrast, and not within the walled garden of the carrier is called “off deck.”
The term is relevant to the marketer because carriers prefer consumers to buy on deck, because they get a cut. Carriers do not get a cut of off deck sales, so third parties, like ring tone makers, often prefer offdeck sales. At the same time, third parties also vie for placement on deck because on deck sales can be an important source of volume. In the US, a greater percentage of content is sold on deck versus in Europe and Asia. US carriers make more effort to keep sales on deck, and US consumers seem to be less aware of off deck content.
OPT-IN: Purchases via mobile phone typically require an opt-in process in which the buyer must confirm their willingness to be charged.
1. Single opt-in refers to a process that makes a person confirm their understanding of purchase when an item is ordered.
2. Double opt-in adds the extra step of requiring the user to confirm a purchase by responding to an SMS message they receive after making their purchase
3. Triple opt-In (which is now uncommon) requires the user to respond to TWO SMS messages before they are charged.
Carriers demand opt-in purchase confirmations because of the potential for confusion and their desire to avoid billing disputes with their customers.
PAYG or PAY AS YOU GO or PREPAID: All three terms refer to phone service that is purchased by consumers as an alternative to having a credit card account with a carrier. Pre-pay helps people too young to have credit, or with bad credit, or whose bill payers want to control their monthly pone expenses, get some cellular service. All major carriers offer PAYG programs
PREMIUM SMS: Premium Text Messaging refers to special programs that require an additional fee to subscribe. Examples of Premium Text subscription campaigns are:
1. Sports alerts: MLB, NFL etc.
2. Weather alerts, jokes, stock quotes, horoscopes, etc..
3. Trivia.
4. Mobile coupons.
5. Interactive TV shows and voting such as Idol.
Standard messaging rates always apply along with premium charges.
RINGTONE: The sounds you hear when your phone rings. Can be anything from a basic ring, to a section of a song, or dialogue. There are three basic kinds that offer three different levels of fidelity:
1. Monotone: The most basic variety, reproduces the basic melody of a song.
2. Polytone: More closely approximates the actually instrumental melody of a song.
3. Truetone: A real sample of a recording.
Older phones tend not to be truetone enabled. Newer phones use true tone compatibility as a selling point.
RINGBACK TONE: A “ringtone” that plays to the caller when calling a phone.
SHORT CODE: A short code is a set of four numbers that substitutes for a full ten digit phone number in mobile. Marketers like short codes because they make it easier for consumers to respond. The most famous short codes in America are the four digit contestant numbers that Idol uses to collect votes from ATT subscribers. Instead of dialing 1-866-IDOLS02 (1-866-436-5702), for example, users simply text VOTE to a number like 6766. Short codes can be great for use on highway billboards, where you are relying on someone to remember 4 digits like IDOL versus 1-800-555-1244.
SMS: Short message service or “text”. It is a “short” message because a text cannot have more than 160 characters.
WALLPAPERS: A graphic that serves as the background for a phone screen. Wallpapers are a popular form of personalization content, and many consumers are willing to pay for attractive ones.
WAP: The most common application environment.
Those are some essentials. And I promise not to use even these very often in the rest of this document. I promised plain English.
One term that is tough to avoid is “data services”. This is used to refer to non-voice functions that a phone may offer. Data can take many forms, from text to audio to video to a Flava Flav wallpaper. A game is a data service. While data services makes it sounds like we're talking about business applications, it really refers to anything other than voice that a phone transmits or receives.
THE FACTS OF MOBILE
There were 177 Million mobile telephone customers in the US in 2007.
Use of Data Services
Of those 177Million, the following statistics outline their usage rates of different cellular data services:
Percent of Users Who
Use the Service Now
Send and receive text 35%
Take photos 28%
Play games 22%
Access the Internet 14%
Send/receive email 8%
Perform searches 7%
Send and receive IMs 7%
Play music 6%
Record video clips 6%
Get mobile maps 4%
Watch video 2%
(Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
In addition, many consumers have stated their intent to use more data services in the future.
Percent of Users Who Don’t
Use a Service Now But Plan to
In the Future
Get mobile maps 47%
Send/receive email 24%
Perform searches 24%
Play music 19%
Take still photos 19%
Record video clips 17%
Access the Internet 16%
Watch video 14%
Send/receive SMS 13%
Play games 12%
Send/receive IMs 11%
(Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
So mobile campaigns can certainly achieve critical mass in many categories so as to warrant the effort. But the data also point to likely explosive growth over the next 1-2 years.
Age continues to be a key predictor of digital usage. While the information is somewhat dated, research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that teen usage of SMS, for example, is more than eight times higher than that of seniors.
As SMS is the most developed data service in the US, figure for many other technologies like ringtones and wallpapers are even more age skewed.
Race is also a predictor of digital behavior. African American and Hispanics tend to use cell phones more and are quicker to adopt data technologies. They also tend to use such technologies more frequently.
Men tend to adopt new mobile technologies slightly faster than women, but the differences are small.
One of the key trends in mobile usage, in addition to use of the applications listed above, is the growth in users of mobile for social media. Major social networks like MySpace have mobile offerings, and new mobile-only social networks have been launched as well. Wikipedia lists the following as major mobile social networks:
• Jumbuck
• AirG
• Mocospace
• Bluepulse
Also according to Wikipedia, the first two listed above have agreements with specific carriers, while the second two work across carriers.
GPS navigation will likely drive enormous growth in the already brisk pace of growth in mobile social, as location based communities can freely develop.
Tomorrow: How to Think About Mobile
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Mobile for Dingbats Week
We’re all dingbats about some things, and experts in others. Lots of marketers, particularly those over 30, are less familiar with mobile phones and their potential marketing uses than they are of offline or PC-based media. You simply can’t be expert in everything in this constantly evoloving kaleidoscope of options that is the 2008 media environment. But because mobile has become such a critical part of daily life for ourselves and our targets, it makes sense to learn a little more.
If You’re a Mobile Dingbat, this is the week for you on OLDMTA. Each day I will be offering informaiton to help people unfamiliar with mobile marketing better understand this fascinating space. Let's get started!
The Year of Mobile???
Little known fact: In his farewell address, President George Washington predicted that 1797 would be “The year of mobile.” Every year since, pundits have been telling us that mobile’s big time debutante cotillion is definitely next year.
OK, so some of that isn’t true. But for about the last 5-7 years, people have been promising that the year of mobile is only months away. And every year they have been wrong. Mobile marketing is just getting going.
Or so says me. Some define 2007 as the “year of mobile.” In other words it already happened. I am not poo-pooing the observations of these visionaries. But by my definition we are still waiting for mobile marketing to truly go mainstream. True, some big brands did try mobile in 2007 and that is a significant development. ACNielsen reported that 23% of mobile users saw a mobile advertisement in February 2008, which is surely significant.
But I define the “year of mobile” as the one in which we see big time activity. Not the odd SMS program, not an SMS CRM adjunct to an email program, not a small ad buy. But by mobile actually being used by lots of big brands view as a real tool rather than as an experiment. When a packaged good reports that they can attribute 80,000 cases to mobile, or an automaker reports 8 points of improvement in awareness and purchase intent, that will be the year of mobile for me.
The Year of Mobile? Are You Ready?
Why isn't mobile bigger to marketers? People point to a lack of common standards across phones. To the prevalence of old phones being used – phones with limited data functionalities. To limited usage of data services like SMS among people outside their teens. And a bunch of other things.
What’s interesting about these “reasons” is that a lot of them just aren’t true. A little later I’ll outline the data, but the fact is that most Americans 18+ have a cell phone, and more than half do something other than make calls on it. And changes in mobile technology adoption appear to be more abrupt than gradual. American Idol got a plurality teens in America texting in just one season. iPhone and its clones are doing the same thing to Internet access via a phone.
So, in short, I reject the idea that the consumer isn’t ready for major mobile market efforts. The problem is that most of us – us mainstream marketers, people who don’t know what CDMA stands for without visiting Wikipedia – don’t know what to do with mobile. What might work. How it really fits into the lives of our non-13 year old consumers.
Bad Evangelism
And like many technologies, its evangelists haven’t succeeded in finding easy ways to dimensionalize the potential impact of mobile marketing yet. I want to emphasize that I am indicting myself here as much as anyone else, but digital people as a group positively suck at explaining the marketing import of things.
Look how we explain a simple thing like RSS:
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content including, but not limited to, blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" [3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.
In short, we explain one confusing technology by referring to others, and focus on the first tiny efforts instead of using big programs as our case studies. By the time the big brands are doing things, most of us have moved on to the next thing.
Gimme Real Proof
Most brands want real proof before they leap into something. Because a dollar spent on something unproven is a dollar that can’t be spent on one of the proven tactics that propel sales.
And real proof is not some fourth tier teen brand collecting 3,500 opt-ins for a mobile program.
And most marketers are busy – too busy to spend a day or a week researching something like an emerging media channel.
This mobile week on OLDMTA is intended to explain mobile in a single place; to talk about the various marketing options available, and to discuss how a brand might use them. If you know the 13 ways that 3G is better than 2G, this week's posts aren’t for you. But if you are looking for some plain English and strategic ideas, I hope you find this week a beneficial investment of time.
If You’re a Mobile Dingbat, this is the week for you on OLDMTA. Each day I will be offering informaiton to help people unfamiliar with mobile marketing better understand this fascinating space. Let's get started!
The Year of Mobile???
Little known fact: In his farewell address, President George Washington predicted that 1797 would be “The year of mobile.” Every year since, pundits have been telling us that mobile’s big time debutante cotillion is definitely next year.
OK, so some of that isn’t true. But for about the last 5-7 years, people have been promising that the year of mobile is only months away. And every year they have been wrong. Mobile marketing is just getting going.
Or so says me. Some define 2007 as the “year of mobile.” In other words it already happened. I am not poo-pooing the observations of these visionaries. But by my definition we are still waiting for mobile marketing to truly go mainstream. True, some big brands did try mobile in 2007 and that is a significant development. ACNielsen reported that 23% of mobile users saw a mobile advertisement in February 2008, which is surely significant.
But I define the “year of mobile” as the one in which we see big time activity. Not the odd SMS program, not an SMS CRM adjunct to an email program, not a small ad buy. But by mobile actually being used by lots of big brands view as a real tool rather than as an experiment. When a packaged good reports that they can attribute 80,000 cases to mobile, or an automaker reports 8 points of improvement in awareness and purchase intent, that will be the year of mobile for me.
The Year of Mobile? Are You Ready?
Why isn't mobile bigger to marketers? People point to a lack of common standards across phones. To the prevalence of old phones being used – phones with limited data functionalities. To limited usage of data services like SMS among people outside their teens. And a bunch of other things.
What’s interesting about these “reasons” is that a lot of them just aren’t true. A little later I’ll outline the data, but the fact is that most Americans 18+ have a cell phone, and more than half do something other than make calls on it. And changes in mobile technology adoption appear to be more abrupt than gradual. American Idol got a plurality teens in America texting in just one season. iPhone and its clones are doing the same thing to Internet access via a phone.
So, in short, I reject the idea that the consumer isn’t ready for major mobile market efforts. The problem is that most of us – us mainstream marketers, people who don’t know what CDMA stands for without visiting Wikipedia – don’t know what to do with mobile. What might work. How it really fits into the lives of our non-13 year old consumers.
Bad Evangelism
And like many technologies, its evangelists haven’t succeeded in finding easy ways to dimensionalize the potential impact of mobile marketing yet. I want to emphasize that I am indicting myself here as much as anyone else, but digital people as a group positively suck at explaining the marketing import of things.
Look how we explain a simple thing like RSS:
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content including, but not limited to, blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" [3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.
In short, we explain one confusing technology by referring to others, and focus on the first tiny efforts instead of using big programs as our case studies. By the time the big brands are doing things, most of us have moved on to the next thing.
Gimme Real Proof
Most brands want real proof before they leap into something. Because a dollar spent on something unproven is a dollar that can’t be spent on one of the proven tactics that propel sales.
And real proof is not some fourth tier teen brand collecting 3,500 opt-ins for a mobile program.
And most marketers are busy – too busy to spend a day or a week researching something like an emerging media channel.
This mobile week on OLDMTA is intended to explain mobile in a single place; to talk about the various marketing options available, and to discuss how a brand might use them. If you know the 13 ways that 3G is better than 2G, this week's posts aren’t for you. But if you are looking for some plain English and strategic ideas, I hope you find this week a beneficial investment of time.
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