Expert from MMA Discusses the Future of Mobile Marketing

Chasing The Storm has a good interview of Rohit Dadwal from MMA (Mobile Marketing Association). To my surprise, most of the things Rohit mentioned in the interview are things that I am already familiar with. In fact, anyone who has been following the mobile marketing industry closely could easily relate to what Rohit says in his interview. Some of the most important points he made include

1. SMS (short messaging service) marketing or text message marketing will continue to grow steadily in 2009.

2. Bad economy will make businesses and brands think twice before spending their money on traditional advertising. So, they are more likely to spend their advertising dollars only in mediums like mobile phone marketing that guarantee quantifiable returns and successes.

3. Mobile social networking will continue to grow steadily.

4. Mobile search marketing will become big.

5. Location based services will be a huge success and it will continue to play a major role in mobile marketing.

6. Mobile coupons and mobile alerts will become a lot more popular with people.

7. In the next five years, a lot of brands around the world will have a strong mobile presence. In fact, it will become so common that it will be unusual for a big brand to not have a strong mobile presence.

8. Mobile marketing is meant for businesses of all sizes. No matter how small or how big a business empire you have, all you need is the ability to reach the end users. So, businesses can benefit from mobile marketing irrespective of their size and popularity.

As you can see, none of the points made above is new. If you have been following the industry closely, you can see that it is growing steadily and moving in a direction exactly as predicted by experts a few years back. If it continues to grow the same way, it will be a multibillion dollar industry just as predicted. Don’t you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Marketing Association.

6 comments.

IBM Survey On Mobile Phone Based Entertainment

IBM’s recent global online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits has unearthed some interesting facts. Let me present to you the ones that caught my attention.

1. According to the survey, a lot of mobile users these days are willing to get ads on their mobile phones in return for free digital content. Well; if you’ve been following this blog, this news should not come as a surprise to you at all. But the interesting thing here is that mobile users from six countries – India, Australia, the U.S., Germany, Japan, and the U.K. – have said the same thing.

2. Quite a few mobile users have stated that they would be willing to share their personal information with mobile advertisers if they were to get targeted incentives through mobile ads. The most preferred incentives include free audio/video tracks, discount coupons to retail stores, and air travel and hotel reward points.

3. A lot of mobile users find the mobile search facility extremely useful. Moreover, with the advent of 3G networks, mobile web could become a lot more popular than what it is right now – something which I have stated again and again in this blog.

4. Mobile social networking is considered the next big thing. It is one of the most sought after services by mobile users around the world.

5. One thing that stands out in the survey is the notable decline of TV as the primary media device. Thanks to the wide range of multimedia content available on the internet and mobile phones, people do not tend to spend as much time on TV as they used to in the past.

6. Most people do not prefer TV type advertising - getting interrupted by ads in the middle of a program. Instead, they prefer to see ads before and after the show. This way, they get to enjoy the digital content without any interruption. Product placement is yet another option for mobile advertisers, but it could, if overdone, turn customers off. So, they should try not to go overboard with product placement in mobile video games and other such digital entertainment content.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Google Android vs. Apple iPhone - Who is the real winner?

So, the widely anticipated Google Android phone, T-Mobile G1, has been released. Before its release, there were a lot of speculations and questions due to two reasons. First, it was from Google. As we now live in the Google era, anything Google does is big news. Second, a lot of people compared Android to Apple iPhone and expected it to create a huge buzz in the market like the iPhone did. So, now that the phone has been released, did it manage to create a huge buzz like Apple iPhone? The answer to that question would be ‘no’.

First of all, you need to understand why and how Apple iPhone managed to create such a huge buzz in the market. There are two main reasons behind it.

1. Apple iPhone was the first of its kind. The unbelievably smooth touch screen, the built-in YouTube player, built-in iPod, and other features made iPhone a stand-out choice for both technophiles and laymen. Also, it made mobile web surfing easier than before. This was a major breakthrough, as an overwhelming majority of iPhone users use the mobile search facility extensively, making the iPhone the leader of mobile searches.

The T-Mobile G1, on the other hand, is in the ‘oh; so what’s new now?’ category.

2. Apple iPhone had a huge, loyal subscriber base way before its release. Most of the iPod-worshipping crowd was excited about the arrival of iPhone and these were the people that rushed to buy the iPhone on the very first day of its release, without even knowing how it was.

The T-Mobile G1, on the other hand, does not have such a loyal following. Though Google is probably the most popular brand today, it is not so in the mobile world. So, we can safely assume that G1 will not rock the sales charts like iPhone did.

However, there is one important thing which sets Android apart from iPhone - its open source platform which allows any developer from anywhere in the world to create mobile applications. Apple, on the other hand, has a tight grip on both the hardware and software of the iPhone. So, though Apple offers plenty of mobile applications through its App Store, it retains a lot of control.

Google has announced that it will license Android to any company in the world, which gives handset makers and wireless carriers around the world to tweak the software according to their needs. This is a major plus point.

Just imagine – If any handset maker can come up with a device for Android and any wireless carrier can support it, Google Android can become a household name around the world in a few years from now. Apple iPhone, on the other hand, is locked with AT&T for five years.

So, while T-Mobile G1 phone has not managed to create a huge buzz like the iPhone did, there is every possibility of Android becoming widespread around the world. So, who could be the real winner in the long term? My money is on Google. What say you?

Categories: Google, Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile search grew 68% last year - says research firm

The latest report from comScore says that mobile search is growing by leaps and bounds in the U.S. and Western Europe – a terrific 68% growth in the U.S. and 38% growth in Western Europe. The research firm says that mobile search has a huge future and these numbers could go up considerably in the coming years.

With the influx of high end phones like Apple iPhone and smart phones, mobile users find it easier to access the internet from their mobile phone. So, they use the search facility extensively. Experts say that the introduction of 3G has played a big role in the growth of mobile search. In fact, since the introduction of 3G, the number of mobile users in the U.S. that use the mobile search facility has doubled.

Now, let’s take a look at some numbers.

1. Between June 2007 and June 2008, around 21 million U.S. subscribers and 4.5 million European subscribers used the mobile search facility.

2. Google is the most important search provider for mobile phones. It has a 60% market share in mobile search around the world. It is followed by its fiercest competitor in the mobile space, Yahoo, which has a market share of around 35%. As you know, Google is the default search provider for Sprint and the iPhone and Yahoo is the default search provider for AT&T.

3. 9.5% of mobile users in the U.K. used the mobile search facility last year, which is unprecedented. In the U.S., around 9.2% of mobile users used the search facility.

If the mobile industry continues to grow at this rate, which it will, we can expect a lot more high end phones at affordable rates, cheaper and better data plans, and as a result, a huge increase in the number of people who use the mobile search facility.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

1 comment.

Mobile phones in India to come preloaded with ads?

With a mobile user base of around 250 million and growing, India continues to be the hottest market for mobile phone manufacturers. However, the rates of mobile phones have gone down sharply over the years. There are two main reasons for this.

First, the target customer segment of mobile phone manufacturers as far as India is concerned is the middle class people. According to surveys, the number of middle class people in India is estimated close to 300 million. In order to target this segment, mobile phone manufacturers have introduced new models which cost very little. And since the middle class also happens to be the most active customer segment in India, the low-priced models usually sell well, leaving the mobile manufacturers with no option but to continue with them.

Second, there is hellacious competition in the market. Both CDMA and GSM phone manufacturers are hell bent on capturing the biggest market share and as a result, they’ve cut down their prices sharply.

As a result, you can now get a mobile phone for just over $20 in India. Due to this reason, mobile phone manufacturers are looking for different ways to make money. One such way is mobile phone advertising.

Already, Nokia is planning to generate revenue through its mobile internet platform Ovi. Also, some of the mobile phone manufacturers in India are in talks with UK based mobile media firm Affle.

Especially, Affle’s SMS2.0, a mobile application, seems to have caught a lot of attention. This application adds a lot of new features like color, graphics, signature, and emoticons to an otherwise ordinary text messaging service. When the customer sends a text message using this application, there will be an ad at the bottom of the message and a full-screen ad while the message is being sent. Affle is also planning to add features like social networking and mobile search to this application.

Some of the big names in India including Airtel are interested in this technology and might soon incorporate it in their handsets. There are plans of releasing handsets which will have this application preinstalled. However, mobile manufactures might want to test the waters and see the user response for such handsets before taking any major decision.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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