Mobile marketing: the hype is accompanied by caution

More and more people are using smartphones. This presents Swiss companies with major challenges in their marketing strategy. This article appeared in the current issue of "Marketing & Communication". More exciting info from the digital sector and other topics can be found at here.-------------Whether it's a retailer, bank, telecoms company, health insurer, car or milk seller: most major Swiss companies are currently sprucing up their mobile websites, tinkering with the new mechanisms and trying to make their mark with various marketing activities. Mobile presence is not yet an issue for companies such as Swiss Life, ABB, Axpo or Siemens. However, Coop, Migros, UBS, Swisscom, Helsana, Amag and Swissmilk have responded in detail to the MK inquiry.Coop: double-digit growth in app usageFor Urs Meier, media spokesman for Coop, the starting position is clear: "70 percent of the Swiss own a smartphone, and among the young target group, this is the primary device with over 90 percent penetration." In the case of the current "Disney" customer program, a third of the traffic already comes from mobile devices. Coop is also seeing double-digit growth in app usage. "Smartphones have become an important research channel, while the act of purchase tends to take place via tablets," Meier notes. "Mobile will gain in importance, especially with the payment extension, and also enables individual and location-based communication. "In any case, Coop is now consistently aligning all new websites to be multidevice-capable. "Push is an important communication tool to trigger targeted impulses," explains Urs Meier, "addressing is also possible by means of services, such as digital couponing, digital gift card, Passabene, wine advisor or online shopping at Coop@home." In the festive campaign, Coop will be using targeted mobile ads with daily offers - in the morning, when people are driving to work, and in the evening, when they are surfing on their tablets and mobiles at home. Coop has already had good experiences with app advertising and frequency capping, i.e. Coop plays certain formats only once per user.Measurable customer behavior"The digital channel is important for retail because online and offline are merging," says Migros spokeswoman Martina Bosshard. "Customer behavior becomes measurable via different channels. Individualized marketing is possible regardless of location." Migros is currently operating on MobileDevices with various activities, such as MegaJackpot, the customer loyalty program Cumulus, products, services such as gift cards or the store finder. Migros has had good experience with advertising on mobile sites on its own channels, on apps as well as websites, says Martina Bosshard, and then also on Facebook and Google.Ralph Heidemann from the UBS media office says: "Mobile marketing is becoming increasingly important for us, as our target groups are also moving more and more on mobile channels. However, about 85 percent of our website is still accessed from desktop devices." But for campaigns, depending on the target group and the channels booked, that could be quite different. "Overall, mobile marketing is still in its infancy and we are also still experimenting a lot with this channel," says Heidemann. "For us as a bank, mobile banking via our mobile banking app is also becoming more and more relevant. User numbers almost doubled last year, and the app was downloaded almost 400,000 times in total. "As a recent activity, Ralph Heidemann points to the youth campaign that just ended, which generates a large share of mobile traffic: "Mobile marketing was also a big topic in our media plan here. But we're not only relying on this channel for the young target groups, but also for the current e- and mobile-banking campaign." UBS has had good experiences with ads on iPad apps. Here, the user is usually reached at a good time and UBS is exclusively present here with advertising in most cases. "Otherwise, our experience has been that Facebook ads and other text-image combinations work better on mobile than display forms of advertising. Twitter in particular works very well for us - here we were one of the first Swiss companies to use the new advertising formats," says Heidemann.Parallel useOlaf Schulze, media spokesman for Swisscom, notes: "In the analytics figures, we see that, quite irrespective of age group, more and more customers are visiting our sites and services with a smartphone. Mobile marketing is therefore becoming increasingly important and is taking on an ever greater role in the marketing mix." At Swisscom, he said, all pages are optimized for mobile devices. "Our most recent campaign is the Christmas campaign. We address our customers via various mobile banners and are observing a trend towards second device usage." This means that the target group watches a TV commercial and at the same time obtains information about the product details via tablet. "In the area of mobile marketing, we have had very good experiences on social media channels so far. We recently launched the Youtube custom gadget very successfully," Schulze continues. Of course, the new Youtube channel is also mobile-optimized: "The new channel offers a much better user experience, so we can upload all the films for the Christmas campaign to our Youtube channel in an orderly and clearly presented way. And the products they contain are offered for purchase directly on the Youtube channel." Swisscom also relies heavily on Facebook for its mobile campaigns. "Mobile marketing is part of our overall marketing activities and allows us to address a mobile-savvy target group. The channel is certainly suitable for drawing attention to offers," says Helsana spokesman Stefan Heini. "When dealing with mobile marketing, however, it must be taken into account that we are moving in a very personal area on a user's smartphone. Advertising can be perceived as disturbing. Therefore, relevance and tonality are crucial for success." Apps that offer customers and potential customers added value or create experiences that positively influence the perception of the brand are very well suited, he says.Process implementation"Mobile marketing is also becoming increasingly important in our business areas," says Amag Marketing Manager Philipp Wetzel as well. "And we are no longer just talking about pure advertising measures. More than 40 percent of our personalized newsletters, for example, are already read via mobile devices. So it's eminently important to make all digital communications and promotions mobile-readable." Amag is currently in the process of offering promotions not only in analog form, but also by means of redeemable digital vouchers: "The challenge we face here is not so much in communicative implementation as in the implementation of billing processes in the national dealer network right up to the POS. Matthias Glauser, Head of Publishing & Media, says: "So far, we have made little use of the mobile channel for our marketing. However, the increase in mobile usage is strong, which means that this channel is rapidly becoming important in marketing. Accordingly, we are also planning future activities and appearances via mobile devices." Currently, Swissmilk offers a mobile-optimized recipe site for web users, so that Swissmilk recipes can be found quickly on the go and the ingredient list is available on the mobile shopping list when shopping. "Over the next few months, we will make our entire web presence fully responsive. In addition, we are also using QR codes in various communication appearances as a supplement to the shortcut URL," adds Glauser. Swissmilk still has little experience with ads on Facebook or YouTube. The YouTube channel is currently being revised.Site-related activitiesMany considerations and first steps are currently being taken in location-based marketing. At Coop, possible activities are being examined so that they can soon be used profitably with customers without annoying them. At Migros, tests are underway with geofencing for the targeted playout of content at the point of interest. UBS is following the topic with interest, but so far no campaign would have lent itself to this. For the Christmas campaign, Swisscom is not running GPS location-based campaigns near Swisscom stores. Amag has already tested approaches, but has not yet rolled them out nationally. "We are still experiencing problems with incorrect deliveries in certain areas. We are currently testing a pilot with NFC & QR code interfaces to registration platforms for test drives," says Philipp Wetzel. And Swissmilk has also already cast an eye on the topic of location-based marketing: "We are examining the use of iBeacons for our events, but are still in the concept phase," says Matthias Glauser.But despite the immense possibilities and the extensive tests, the exponents also seem to be aware of the limits and sensitivity of the topic of mobile marketing. "One's own smartphone is a very personal device, and when it is used for communication presences, it must be handled with corresponding sensitivity. However, those who can offer the user effective added value - at the right time in the right place and also communicated transparently - will be able to gain acceptance," Matthias Glauser is convinced. "Great care must be taken with both push and banner communication," says Urs Meier, "an app is deleted faster than it is installed, and moreover, intrusive mobile advertising has a negative impact on the brand experience.""Mobile is certainly a special channel, as the cell phone is a very personal object," also says Ralph Heidemann from UBS. On the one hand, advertisers need large-format ads on the smartphone, but on the other hand, they must not disturb and annoy the user. Solving this balancing act remains the great challenge in mobile marketing.Author: Gregor Waser