By Rob Henderson
October 19, 2007

With more than 2 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide and over 260 million subscribers in North America, mobile devices are increasingly being used to market products and services to mainstream consumers. While still in its infancy, mobile marketing is poised for tremendous growth
over the next few years, and should be a medium that marketers consider for future campaigns.

It is estimated that marketers spent $1 billion last year on mobile marketing and forecasts predict that annual expenditures will reach $11.4 billion by 2011. There are many analysts who predict that forecast is conservative at best.

Obviously mobile marketing is a growing phenomenon, so how can you use this medium? Essentially there are three categories of mobile marketing that you need to know about: mobile messaging, mobile content, and mobile internet & search.

Mobile Messaging

At the moment, most mobile marketing takes the form of messaging, predominately SMS messaging (also known as “text messaging” or “texting”). Americans and Canadians send an estimated 70 million text messages a day, a number that has grown consistently year over year which only validates mobile messaging is a primary way consumers communicate, especially amongst the teen and 18-34 demographics. Most mobile marketing campaigns are run using mobile pin numbers

or mobile short codes. A short code is a 5 or 6 digit number that is often used as vanity codes for brand names. While SMS messages are predominate, technology has advanced to allow MMS messaging (picture and video messaging), and IVR messaging (Interactive Voice Recording). As more consumers get enabled hand sets, we can only expect to see more picture and video messaging in the marketplace.

In terms of applications, you may have seen the following: text to win, text voting, mobile coupons, and text trivia. All of these applications have proven to be successful ways to engage a consumer. By far, the most successful messaging campaign was American Idol’s text to vote campaign, which generated 64.5 million messages during its last season, with each vote generating 99 cents. When you do the math, you can see the massive revenue potential of the medium.

Mobile Content

Mobile content (also known as Mobile Downloading) is also growing at a rapid rate and generally refers to ring tones, wallpapers, music, T.V., and games. According to M:Metrics, 20 million subscribers in the US have purchased a ring tone and close to 7 million have purchased a mobile game. However, ring tones are on a steady decline with many subscribers using the music they have downloaded from places like Itunes as their ring tones. Mobile gaming on the flip side is a growing market and is predicted to surpass ring tone downloads within the next 18 months.

You can access mobile content directly through your cell phone carrier or through a mobile storefront. As many of the DECOSTA clients will attest, I personally believe a mobile storefront is a much better way to go, however I will save that for a future discussion.

Mobile Web Sites & Search

With each passing day, more cell phone users are browsing the Internet with their personal handheld device. Most mobile sites use WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which does not provide the best user experience. However, technologies are advancing and with the popularity of Apple’s new IPhone, we can expect to see more subscribers browsing the Internet on their cellular phones. As the market evolves, consumers will also be introduced to mobile search opportunities, which when you think about it, can be much more powerful then the Internet search engines we all use today. For example, should a consumer be looking for an Italian restaurant, they can search in their cell phone for not only the best restaurants, but the best ones within their geographic location. Further, those restaurants will be able to send the user a specific promotion to entice the consumer such as a mobile coupon for a free appetizer. With the mobile phone, marketers have a greater capability to engage their consumer in real-time. More importantly, the consumer will be requesting the information, which is a much better alternative then receiving random SPAM emails that we all try to avoid today.

All and all, there are various opportunities for clever marketers to use the mobile medium as a means to generate awareness and increase revenues. While the mobile marketing space is still emerging and has plenty of room for growth, it is now at the point where a marketer can participate in this exciting new medium with success.

One final thought… above I spoke about various ways a marketer can engage a consumer using mobile. As a parting thought, marketers who are in the B2B shouldn’t dismiss using this medium as well. According to Marketing Sherpa, 64 per cent of B2B decision makers receive most of their email through a mobile device, which means that any B2B marketer would be wise to consider implementing a mobile strategy.

For more information about this article, please contact Rob Henderson.