Optism™

This week, we are including a few of articles that consider where mobile marketing is headed and its relationship with “traditional marketing.”

“Relevance, response, and restraint.” Those are the key values recommended for mobile marketers by marketing communications expert Martin Hayward in a new white paper called Marketing Communications Towards 2020: Looking for meaning in a land of plenty. As reported in UTalkMarketing.com, the report “throws down the gauntlet to the marketing and media community to abandon traditional thinking” about marketing. The paper predicts that traditional marketing concepts will soon be irrelevant as marketing channels will become increasingly more accountable, targeted, and measurable. Furthermore, in the next five years, marketing directors expect the proportion of advertising spend on direct mail to increase along with online, mobile and social media. “Data will be plentiful, but needs to be gained from the consumer upfront and employed in a responsible manner. Understanding and earning consumer permission regarding marketing will be paramount.”

Hayward stresses the increasing importance of technology and emphasizes that successful marketing in the future will be focused on actual engagement with individuals. “Technology has empowered the individual and they are no longer forced to endure irrelevant communication.” We agree: Optism enables brands to engage in meaningful conversations with an opted-in audience who are always in control of the experience.

ClickZ also explores the relationship between traditional and digital marketing, in the “Marketing’s Meeting of the Waters” by the Mobile Marketing Association’s Michael Becker. At this point, Michael writes, “digital and traditional marketing domains have met” but they are still “clearly and fundamentally different.” He believes mobile marketing will play a key role in bringing these two domains together “because it’s the only marketing practice that coexists in both traditional and digital worlds, in real time.”

Michael goes on to illustrate the power of mobile through examples of how mobile is bridging the two domains. Mobile is both being used to make sales (direct mobile purchasing) and to influence sales (for example, when consumers use their mobiles to collect information and make an informed purchase at traditional outlets). We need mobile, he argues, to unify a fragmented marketing scene. “Consumers’ variety of options in accessing media, goods, and services is creating a sea of disparate and fragmented channels for marketers to engage consumers, and increasingly the mobile phone is the one constant that can be found in all situations. The mobile phone is the unifying engagement tool.” He backs up this assertion with recent research that found “half of consumers turn to their mobile phone after seeing an ad in another medium.” The future, he concludes, is bright “for brands and agencies that understand the value of cross-media advertising that leverages the ubiquity of mobile marketing.”

eMarketer warns advertisers that “Consumers Expect Mobile Ads to Inform.” In fact, recent research from Yahoo! and The Nielsen Company found “being informative was the most important quality” for mobile ads, with relevancy a close second. Interestingly, the study found that people “cared relatively little about the graphical and multimedia elements of the ads.” The article posits that advertisers “could help the mobile audience warm up to the usefulness of the channel” by making sure they deliver informative, relevant ads. We’d add that they should make sure they have people’s permission before they show up on their phones. Many recent studies have made it very clear that people want to be in control of their mobile experience.

January 28 was the fourth Data Privacy Day. Blogger Tony Fish paid homage to this event with a discussion on the current privacy debate. He characterized the debate as adhering to a “motorway model”. The motorway model shows two lanes of opposing traffic, one moving toward more freedom and the other moving toward more control, with an ideal middle ground between. He argues that there may be a better way of looking at the issue. He suggests we focus on “community and engagement” to find an innovative solution that fosters conversation to accommodate a diversity of perspectives.

A recent Mobile marketing review podcast featured on mSearchGroove looked at how some universities are coming up with innovative ways to use mobile messaging. For example, the University of Louisville is using mobile marketing to connect with incoming students who aren’t yet accustomed to regularly checking their email. Five hundred students opted-in to receive information about campus events, contests and more. In the future, the school plans to extend the program to prospective students with information about the application process and visiting the University. As mSearchGroove’s Peggy Ann Salz says, “Text is the one guaranteed way to reach the masses and opt-in is the best practice that will trigger a response.”

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