Mobile marketing Years ago, mobile network operators proclaimed the age of mobile marketing. Too early. Today, technology and customers are ready for it, say Kristin Bammel and Heinrich Holland, and almost all of us have a cell phone. Mr. and Mrs. Swiss can be reached almost always and almost everywhere. Even for advertising. That's why mobile marketing is the big trend ... this is not a new prediction; many mobile network operators already assumed this six or seven years ago. Not much has happened since then - the occasional SMS campaign, nothing more. But that is now set to change: In the USA, at least according to Ovum market researchers, spending on mobile advertising will triple this year to almost 150 million dollars.Always and everywhere accessibleThe potential is huge. In 2005, for the first time, more people worldwide made mobile calls than via the fixed network. And the trend is rising sharply. Of the 14 to 69-year-olds who are of interest to advertisers, three out of five can no longer imagine life without their cell phone. And the advantages of advertising on the move are obvious: the (potential) customer is easy to locate thanks to GPS, can be reached anytime and anywhere, and his cell phone can be personalized easily and securely with a phone number and SIM card. All of this is the basis for targeting the right customer at the right time and in the right place.
Kristin Bammel and Heinrich Holland explain how to do this in "Mobile Marketing". Does it ring a bell? Prof. Dr. Heinrich Holland holds the Chair of Direct and Retail Marketing, Statistics and Business Informatics at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, teaches at the European Business School and is Deputy Academy Director of the German Direct Marketing Academy. He is considered a DM expert. And because mobile marketing is direct marketing in its purest form, he also knows how to write a lot about it. Fortunately, he does so in a readable and easy-to-understand way.
From the field, for the fieldIn the first 50 pages or so, Bammel and Holland lay the (technical) foundations and then define the role of mobile marketing in the marketing mix and what determines success or failure. Then they get serious: they list all the elements and forms of mobile marketing campaigns, from simple text messages to viral campaigns. The 48 practical examples that Bammel and Holland describe in detail are exciting and instructive, including the success of the campaign - if this is officially reported. Because success can be measured to (at least) one decimal place.
One example of this is the "Fanta Bottle Mail" campaign, with which Coca-Cola advertised seven brands simultaneously on TV, print and radio. Anyone who sent the code on the back of one of the 160 million bottle labels as a text message to the target number could choose from 150 cell phone specials - logos, ringtones, voicemail messages, MMS greeting cards - as a reward. Over 5.9 million people did so, resulting in a response rate of 3.7 percent. Incidentally, the Munich agency 12snap won a silver and a bronze Lion in Cannes for this mobile marketing campaign, the largest of its kind in the world at the time - and Coca-Cola probably gained many new customers.
1:1 marketing in its purest formBammel and Holland also dare to take a look into the future. If they are right, we will soon be advertised in an even more individual, personal, colorful and moving way than before. And sooner rather than later, we ourselves will be at the center of these campaigns. Thanks to mobile devices, which are constantly being developed further, and bandwidths that can transfer more and more data, the final step to genuine one-to-one communication is no longer a big one.
Roger Hausmann
Mobile marketing
by Kristin Bammel and Heinrich Holland; Verlag Franz Vahlen, Munich, 2006, 166 pages, 78 francs.
