Product category:
SMS and MMS services
News Release from: Airwide Solutions | Subject: Mobile marketing use
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 15 October 2007
Mobile marketing goes from strength to
strength
An independent survey of 50 global brand-name companies commissioned by messaging specialist Airwide Solutions reveals significant progress for the mobile marketing industry.
The survey commissioned by Airwide Solutions, the leading provider of next-generation mobile messaging infrastructure and applications, revealed that 28 per cent of companies surveyed have already launched live SMS campaigns and 18 per cent have launched live MMS campaigns Growth in the sophistication of mobile marketing campaigns was reflected in the number of brands considering implementing both SMS and MMS mobile marketing in the next 12 months, which doubled to 28 per cent since a similar survey in 2006
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 22 Oct 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The survey also found that more brands are looking to spend a greater proportion of their marketing budget on mobile campaigns in the near future with 71 per cent of brands projecting to spend up to 10 per cent of their budget on mobile marketing within two years' time.
Brand experience with mobile marketing is increasingly positive as more brands are getting higher response rates from their campaigns.
The percentage of big brands who said that up to 10 per cent of recipients of mobile marketing campaigns requested more information as a result of receiving a mobile marketing message grew from 32 per cent in 2006 to 58 per cent in 2007.
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And the news is even better for financial transactions with 73 per cent of brands stating that up to 10 per cent of recipients subsequently undertook a financial action as a result of the campaign as compared with 28 per cent in 2006.
Every responding brand agreed that their most recent mobile marketing campaign was successful in increasing customer familiarity of their brand.
Most significantly, the experience of brands using mobile marketing demonstrates that the actual campaign response rate is even higher than the expectations of those who have not yet implemented mobile marketing.
According to the survey, 57 per cent of brands not yet using mobile marketing anticipate that customers will request more information, while 83 per cent of brands that have already implemented campaigns said they received requests for more information.
The numbers for financial transactions are even higher with 38 per cent of inexperienced brands stating that they expect consumers to undertake consequent financial actions while 82 per cent of experienced brands have said that recipients completed a financial action as a result of being sent a mobile marketing message.
However, despite enthusiasm for mobile marketing, there are barriers holding back even higher growth rates, with more than half of brands not yet employing the use of either text messaging (58 per cent) or multimedia messaging (60 per cent) systems for marketing purposes.
As brands have learned about mobile marketing the perception that SMS is a reliable and measurable medium has increased with the number of brands that find SMS too complicated for marketing dropping significantly from 24 per cent in 2006 to 8 per cent in 2007.
Additionally, more brands now know how to measure its effectiveness, with uncertainty about how to do so dropping from 18 per cent in 2006 to 11 per cent in 2007.
In contrast, however, the perception that MMS is difficult to use has grown from 14 per cent in 2006 to 29 per cent in 2007 and concerns about reliability have grown from 12 per cent in to 34 per cent in the same time.
Almost half of big brands (46 per cent) are concerned that mobile marketing is too intrusive, with many feeling that customers will perceive messages as spam.
Of these, 41 per cent are unsure how to rectify the problem by targeting specific audiences.
Over a third of brands (36 per cent) would require detailed information on how the user responded to the message, and one in five want proof that the message has been received by the user's handset (concerns mirrored by recent high-profile issues with TV text voting).
Airwide tackles the inhibitors to mobile's progress through elements of the company's comprehensive mobile messaging product line including AirGate, AirGuard AntiSpam and AirManager Reporting.
Airwide's suite of solutions provides marketers with information to better target campaigns, enhance the reliability and scalability of the underlying infrastructure, improve the quality of interaction with the consumer and measure overall campaign effectiveness.
In addition, the suite provides network operators with tools to support marketing campaigns while protecting their subscribers from SPAM and giving consumers the controls to ensure they only receive wanted information from trusted sources.
Addressing concerns about running an MMS mobile marketing campaign, Airwide's MMS products are the industry's performance leaders offering the highest MMS message throughput, the greatest message type flexibility (application to person (A2P), person to application (P2A) and person to person (P2P)) at the lowest cost.
Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at Airwide, commented: "The ongoing development of component-based mobile messaging systems has paved the way for a range of valuable new marketing opportunities for brands which, in turn, creates a significant revenue opportunity for mobile operators.
"However, the present take-up of mobile marketing is somewhat inhibited by a lack of supporting information to manage and optimise marketing programmes.
"With reliable infrastructure in place and a means to control and measure campaigns, more and more mobile operators will be competing to create and deliver the most effective mobile marketing initiatives to subscribers".
It is not only the brands that will benefit: mobile phone users are expected to benefit from a range of incentives as part of the growth in mobile marketing, with almost 60 per cent of brands intending to send special offers via the mobile phone, and over a third (36 per cent) sending discount vouchers.
Other incentives will include digital loyalty cards, free gifts and preferential terms.
Airwide Solutions commissioned Vanson Bourne in January 2006 and July 2007 to survey 50 of Europe's global brand names about their plans for mobile marketing.
Airwide Solutions is the market leader in next-generation mobile messaging infrastructure and applications.
Its products allow more than 80 wireless operators in 46 countries to deliver and manage the millions of mobile messages their subscribers send every day.
With a history of industry firsts - including the first text message ever sent and the introduction of the first SMS router and A2P MMSC - the company continues to pioneer new technologies.
Airwide's open Fusion architecture offers mobile operators more revenue options and a practical pathway to Mobile Messaging 2.0, while giving subscribers more messaging choices.
Airwide Solutions operates globally with offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa.
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