The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Posts tagged Mobile Marketing
Pirates of the Caribbean goes mobile with Hypertag
Jun 14th
Link: Netimperative – Hypertag takes Pirates of the Caribbean campaign mobile
Disney have teamed up with marketing company Hypertag to promote their new Pirates of the Caribbean video game using bluetooth in bars and pubs around London.
Hypertags are short-range wireless devices which send information to mobile phones via Bluetooth. A user activates the Bluetooth on their phone, holds it near to the Hypertag and receives content such as coupons, business cards, ringtones or games.
The Pirates of the Caribbean campaign, which ended at the weekend, was run across the Boomerang network in
, delivering video clips and images of the new ‘At World’s End” game. London
There’s been a previous discussion on the blog about the legalities of using Bluetooth for delivering content in public places, with particular regard to opt-in. Hypertag apparently have a work-around for the issue, so if you’re thinking about doing something similar and don’t want to get bogged down in the whole ‘is it spam or isn’t it’ issue, would be worth having a chat with the gang at Hypertag.
Mobile marketing reach is too small, too expensive
Jun 8th
Link: Advertising Age – Digital – Video Report: Mobile Marketing Stymied by High CPMs, Small Audiences
Overly high cost-per-thousand expectations and audiences too small to matter are stymieing the development of the mobile phone advertising business, according to media buying executives at this week’s Mobile Marketing association Forum.
“Most of the brands for whom we do investment advisory are not going to buy $60, $70 or $80 CPMs, even if that’s what the market demand is right now,” Eric Bader, senior VP at MediaVest USA, the country’s fifth-largest media-buying agency, said about the cost of trying to reach a thousand people, a standard metric in ad sales.
Interesting. So what’s a good price? According to Eric Bader:
“When you start to look at how effective search and the yellow pages and directory services are, that’s who [mobile is] going to be competing against and those CPMs are down in the $8, $7, $4, $10 range.”
Nielsen to measure mobile media usage
Jun 7th
Link: The Nielsen Company :: Nielsen to Measure the Mobile Media Consumer
American research company Nielsen today announced it’ll begin measuring mobile phone users through a new service called Nielsen Wireless. This service will measure how many people use content services such as mobile Internet and mobile video and what impact this has on established media behavior.
“The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured,” said Herrmann. “Reliable and accurate measurement of mobile consumers will enable advertisers to properly evaluate the mobile marketing opportunity. This new mobile measurement service demonstrates Nielsen’s continued commitment to follow content wherever consumers take it. Independent measurement of the cross-media behavior of the growing mobile audience will support and accelerate the evolution of mobile media business models.”
Understandable independent metrics are good. They help educate and persuade buyers, strengthens the industry’s offering, and help turn a technology into a saleable item.
The announcement also coincides with the release of some interesting statistics about mobile video usage in the USA.
– At least 7% of 18-34 year-olds viewed mobile video programming in the first quarter of 2007 while at least 25% used their mobile phone to connect to the Internet
— As of May 31, more than half, 55%, of primary users of video-enabled mobile phones lived in households with total incomes of $75,000 or above.
— Subscribers to different carriers vary in terms of cable status: people in Sprint households were 30% more likely than people in T-mobile households to have a digital broadcast satellite (DBS) system. People in Verizon Wireless households are 26% more likely to have digital \ cable service in their home (39% of Verizon Wireless household persons had wired digital cable compared to 31% of U.S. Persons 2+).
Welsh Folk rocker pursues chart success with mobile
Jun 7th
Link: webitpr | Folk Rocker Goes Straight To Mobile With Dialogue
Heard of Julia Harris, the up-and-coming funk folk rocker? You probably haven’t, but she’ll be all over your mobile soon, thanks to a little help from Dialogue.
Creative agency Sonaa are working with UK mobile marketing company Dialogue to give Julia a way of promoting her latest single through the mobile medium. The new mobile site went live last week before a gig in Cardiff and Dialogue is also looking to launch other marketing campaigns later in the year, as Julia tours the UK.
Paul Griffiths, Dialogue’s MD explains why Julia’s approach to marketing is a good one and how Dialogue is supporting her marketing strategy: ‘Julia has recognised the growing mobile market as the primary means to reach her fans; this is an area that many artists initially overlook, but Julia wanted to do something different to raise her profile. We have created and host her mobile site and by utilising our Text 2 Browse service through our Mobile Applications Portal (MAP), users are driven to the site through an advertised short code by texting ‘Julia” to 80010. We are also providing a database builder, so that Julia can communicate with her fan base, promoting relevant information and content.”
Julia has had an incredible start to her career, supporting artists such as Damien Rice, receiving rave reviews and regular airplay. The Welsh singer/songwriter is now looking to increase her profile further through mobile campaigns. Dialogue has designed a site for the artist where fans can buy wallpapers, read the latest news from Julia and download her newest music tracks.
US retailer gets 66% response rate on text campaign
Jun 6th
Link: Text Messaging Delivers Amazing Response for Retailer
Moosejaw Mountaineering’s second mass text message yielded an impressive 66% response rate. A leading outdoor adventure retailer, Moosejaw Mountaineering, offers the finest in customer service along with the best outdoor gear and apparel available. It is this commitment to their customers and innovation, which led Moosejaw Mountaineering to select MESSAGEbuzz for all of their mobile marketing needs.
That’s a pretty impressive response rate!
Strongbow launch First Pint Friday mobile campaign
May 16th
Another great win for mobile marketing agency Incentivated, and a really cool use of location based services in a marketing campaign.
Mobile marketing agency, Incentivated has today announced that it is working in partnership with Emap² Radio on a £300,000 radio and mobile campaign for Scottish & Newcastle’s Strongbow cider brand. The campaign will encourage people to choose Strongbow as their first drink of the evening and supports Strongbow’s current TV campaign focusing on ‘Total First Pint Refreshment’.
The campaign is targeting 25-35 year old men and a Strongbow WAP site is being created. Emap² Radio are working in partnership with Incentivated to provide a location based service, where consumers can text a number then their location is detected; details of their nearest Strongbow First Pint Friday venue will then be sent to them. The WAP site will host a wide array of content this audience would want to download on a Friday night, including ringtones, jokes and wallpapers. Details of the WAP site will be sent to an Emap Advertising text database every Friday afternoon at 3pm to remind them to take advantage of ‘Strongbow First Pint Friday’. Street teams will also operate outside each venue encouraging people in.
Although I’m not a great fan of cider, if anyone from Incentivated wants to send over a crate or two of Strongbow I wouldn’t complain 
Operators help SMS spam free for all in Pakistan
May 13th
Link: Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – SMS spam rings the bell for phone users
It all seems to be kicking off in Pakistan on the subject of text spam. Although there’s apparently no law to stop marketers sending unsolicited texts to mobile users, there’s accusations that mobile companies have been sharing subscriber details with advertisers and giving them discounts on sending texts – a claim which the mobile companies deny.
Hafiz Mohsin, owner of Al-Azeem Services (an advertising company) in Faisalabad, told Daily Times that he had been providing sms advertisement service to his clients for the past four months. He said he had prepared a software that sent sms to all prepaid and post-paid numbers in a series provided by cell phone companies with which he had agreements.
But the mobile operators say otherwise:
Mobilink managing director (Public Relations) Omar Manzoor said the company was aware of spam sms on its network, but the company did not share customer data with anyone, especially for advertising purposes. He said the company was looking for a way to curb this activity and save its customer’s from the trouble.
A Warid Telecom customer service dealer told Daily Times that there was no law to stop spam text messages. She said the company had no provision in its policy to share its clients’ numbers. However, she said the company’s employees could do it personally and it could be investigated.
Text helps push up bra sales
May 9th
I’m seeing more and more commercials on TV lately that encourage me to text a number to receive more info. For instance, I can request information on a new car, joining the army, and now get the latest on a range of lingerie – courtesy of TXT4 and bra manufacturer Bravissimo.
Here’s something interesting though. The TV advert (pictured) featured phone and website calls to action, as well as the text number you can see in the screen grab. In terms of response, SMS came out top, with 45% of the total consumer response coming in through the shortcode. In addition, it’s helped Bravissimo measure the return on investment for their campaign.
Jo Lee, marketing director at Bravissimo, explains ‘Assigning a unique keyword to each advertising placement across all media channels enables us to see exactly where leads come from to help determine how successful each has been in generating response. In addition profiling respondents gives valuable insights into the types of consumers we’re successfully attracting and also allows us to better analyse the impact of individual TV and radio spot times. This is valuable information when planning future campaigns. ”
Interesting stuff. Apparently the word on the street is that mobile marketing in the retail sector is going to be the big thing for the rest of the year.
TXT4′s CEO Tim Carrigan says: ‘Of the 230 major brand campaigns we currently manage, from global automotive manufacturers to travel companies, 80% of them use SMS for handling brochure requests. Companies see a dramatic uplift in response as a result of providing consumers with a quick and easy way of responding from anywhere, at anytime. Not only does this capture consumer interest at the very point they see the advertising, but automating the process provides high quality data capture while significantly reducing handling costs.”
80% is a fantastic figure, so congrats to Tim and everyone at TXT4. Any offers of scantily clad women in underwear always welcome..
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