Chief Marketer 2012 Mobile Marketing Survey: Mobile Goes With Everything

Call it the “new black” of marketing. Mobile seems to be integrating into campaigns of all types, and in fact is being used more as a bridge for cross-platform campaigns and less as a channel on its own.

That’s one finding from the latest version of the Chief Marketer Mobile Marketing Survey. Marketers tell CM that they are getting their messages into mobile primarily as a way to drive prospects or audiences to campaigns taking place elsewhere. Whether it’s a video that’s meant to be shared via social channels—increasingly accessed first on mobile devices—a QR code that drives commuters to a web site, or an SMS campaign sending out offers to be redeemed in stores, mobile is becoming the connective tissue whose most important role today is holding multichannel campaigns together.

“Everyone’s got a phone and keeps it close most of the day,” said one respondent. “Depending on your aim, you can reach a mass audience or one as targeted as a specific town, block or street. That makes mobile flexible and useful in ways other channels can’t manage.”

Fifty-seven percent of all survey respondents said they integrated mobile elements into their marketing last year, against 39% who said their brands did not use mobile, and 3% who did not know. (Figures don’t always total 100% due to rounding.) But only 30% said they ran self-contained or mobile-specific campaigns last year, while two-thirds of those polled did not. So for most of those who deployed campaign elements in mobile last year, the channel was a tactical asset rather than a strategic one.

But that pattern might change, and soon. More respondents (51%) said they plan to run more mobile-only marketing this year. And more than a quarter of those polled (26%) said they are at least undecided about whether to run a mobile-centric campaign in 2012, possibly adding to that 51%.

Those results suggest that mobile is morphing from a helper technology that makes other campaigns work better into a standalone, standout platform star in its own right—while retaining its capacity for providing “assists” for goals scored in other media.

Source: by Brian Quinton | Chief Marketer on Jun. 5, 2012

SMS to remain more popular than messaging apps

Mobile operators’ SMS revenues may be under pressure from messaging apps such as WhatsApp, but the overall SMS market is still expected to grow over the next five years. Informa Telecoms & Media forecast that global SMS revenues will increase at a compound annual rate of 3 percent, for total revenues in the period 2011-16 of USD 722.7 billion.

While operators in some developed markets will see slower growth or even a small decline in SMS revenues, the market researcher does not expect a uniform drop across the board. Globally, Informa forecasts that SMS traffic will total 9.4 trillion messages by 2016, up from 5.9 trillion in 2011. However, SMS’s share of global mobile messaging traffic will fall from 64.1 percent in 2011 to an estimated 42.1 percent in 2016. At the same time, mobile instant messaging traffic will increase from 1.6 trillion messages worldwide in 2011 to 7.7 trillion in 2016, doubling its share of global messaging traffic from 17.1 percent in 2011 to 34.6 percent in 2016.

While mobile IM will grow, the bulk of the revenues will still go to mobile operators. Informa forecasts that mobile operators will take USD 8.7 billion or 54 percent of total IM service revenues in 2016. Meanwhile, OTT messaging service providers’ share of IM revenues will climb over the forecast period from 37 percent in 2011 to an estimated USD 7.4 billion or 46 percent of total revenues in 2016.

Operators will also still profit from MMS and e-mail services. While MMS is expected to represent just 1.7 percent of global messaging traffic in 2016, at 387.5 billion events, MMS will represent 10.6 percent of global messaging revenues within the same timeframe, at USD 20.7 billion. E-mail will be the second revenue generator for mobile operators by 2016, generating an USD 32 billion in revenues, or 16.3 percent of total global messaging revenues, Informa estimates.

Source: by telecompaper on Tuesday 29 May 2012

Using SMS to Power Customer Loyalty Programs

How do you feel if you received mobile coupon / voucher from restaurant, cafe and you will get discounted price when you dine in?

Customer loyalty clubs are awesome. You get your little punch card or barcode keychain at the time of sale and every time you go back and make another purchase you get points towards a reward. The reward usually comes in the form of a free product, special pricing, or branded merchandise. You know what we’re talking about: Buy 5 sandwiches and get the 6th free! So, how can we use SMS marketing to help drive the success of our loyalty rewards program? Let’s take a look at a three real world examples:

1) Starbucks Offers Mobile Coupons

Back in 2009, Starbucks ran a mobile coupon loyalty program in Mexico. The strategy behind the campaign involved not only rewarding loyal customers but also introduced Starbucks to new customers. Starbucks used a very traditional marketing channel – postcards – to encourage customers to subscribe to Starbucks’ SMS distribution list. By doing this, the customer would get a download link for a ‘buy one get one free’ mobile coupon. That was the part of the campaign to attract new customers. Existing customers were rewarded by an in-store display that prompted customers to text a different keyword to the same short code, which opted the customer in to an SMS list that offered discounts and offers. The cashiers at Starbucks were able to read the mobile coupons directly from the customers’ mobile phones at the time of sale. The current offer could be changed to encourage repeat customers.

The Takeaway:  An SMS campaign can be used to not only generate new customers with a static offer, but also to reward existing customers with coupons and offers that frequently change. The frequently changing offers give the existing customer subsequent reasons to visit the store.

Source: Mobile Marketer

 

2) Taco John’s Drives Participation

A more recent example comes from Taco John’s, which used a text message campaign early last year to drive participation in a customer loyalty program called “My Town Mania.” Customers were able to receive not only coupon offers, but also healthy living tips via SMS during the campaign’s six-week duration. As mentioned, the SMS campaign supported the “My Town Mania” loyalty program, in which customers could earn points by sharing photos and videos of their communities. Points could be redeemed for free food, gift cards, and merchandise.

The Takeaway: Taco John’s strategy ties in directly with another great mobile marketing campaign tip we covered earlier in this blog: tie your SMS marketing message to information that your prospect will want to see on a regular basis (e.g. the weather). In the case of Taco John’s, it was healthy living tips.

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily

3) Vienna Beef Helps its Customers Reach Their Customers

The previous two entries were examples of business-to-consumer marketing via SMS. In this next example, we take a brief look at how a supplier acted as a third party to create an SMS business-to-customer program for its customers. The supplier was Vienna Beef, a hot dog maker based in Chicago. The pass-through businesses were restaurants that carried Vienna Beef products. The customers were hot dog lovers around the country. Vienna Beef offered its customers (restaurants) a ‘pre-packaged’ SMS campaign that the restaurant could in turn use to entice their customers (hot dog lovers) with offers and announcements. The restaurants would use point-of-purchase displays and other forms of marketing to promote the program. After the restaurant’s customers subscribed to the SMS list, the customer would receive coupons that could be redeemed by showing their mobile phone to the restaurant’s cashier. Restaurants owners had a great deal of control over the frequency and content of their store’s messages and offers, but Vienna Beef provided suggestions and support to restaurant owners who were charting new ground with this marketing strategy.

The Takeaway: Suppliers can develop creative customer loyalty SMS campaigns that can benefit each member of the sales chain, from the supplier (e.g. Vienna Beef) to the business (e.g. restaurants) to the customer (e.g. hot dog lovers). It’s a win-win-win for everybody involved.

Source: Chief Marketer

Source: by Todd Jensen on June 8, 2012