5.8 Billion Reasons to Pay Attention to Mobile (If You Aren’t Already)

“With its US$5.8 billion purchase of Sybase announced Wednesday, SAP is placing a big bet that mobile business applications are the way of the future….”

That’s PC World reporting on the news that SAP is making a huge investment in mobile.

To me, talk of “upcoming generations of business workers [in emerging markets like India and China] who are completely connected and entirely mobile” underscores the point that mobile is simply everywhere.

SAP powers the guts that make businesses work – but mobile continues to mature as a marketing technology as well.  Don’t believe me? Well, AdMob – which may or may not be bought by Google for $750M – recently served its 200 billionth mobile ad.

200 billion!

Business travelers know SAP well because of its strong airport ad campaign, the subtext of which is “smart companies run SAP – so why aren’t you?”

Well, permit me to borrow that line of logic and point out that, as a brand marketer, if you aren’t thinking seriously about your mobile strategy then you ought to be considering one – because SAP just dropped a $5.8B bet on theirs.

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

As the hype surrounding the iPad becomes deafening, it’s helpful to get some additional perspective from people who know the mobile space.

Over at AdWeek, Simon Vella makes some excellent points in his op-ed “Forget Apps, Text Still Reigns in Mobile.”

He notes:

Nearly every cellphone in the U.S. is capable of text messaging and because it’s used for regular personal communication, it’s always top of mind in terms of general daily use. By comparison, only 18 percent of all phones in the U.S. are smartphones. Further, Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones worldwide will account for just 23 percent of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013, hardly representing the mass market for general consumer goods and services.

And furthermore,

An October 2009 report from Strategy Analytics] showed only four to six mobile apps are used on a consistent basis. Brands need to be aware that there’s intense competition for share of the mobile phone desktop…This doesn’t leave a lot of room for grabbing consumer attention for those without big budgets or unique functionality. The reality is that most mobile apps are downloaded and discarded to the bin unless they’re compelling and have an ongoing mobile usefulness to them.

Elsewhere, Mobile Marketing Watch has used the AdWeek essay as a jumping off point to discuss the power and utility of SMS in the face of lots of noise.

Justin Montgomery notes in “Mobile Apps May be Reaching a Saturation Point, SMS Still Reigns Supreme”:

Mobile apps are dominated by the iPhone, with most development going toward its platform, which only represents 4% of the entire mobile market.  With such a frenzy for mobile apps, competition is rampant with very few avenues to distribute, apart from Apple’s App Store which has the most competition of all.  Because of it, the mobile app market is beginning to be saturated.  SMS, on the other hand, has none of these limiting attributes.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Marketers don’t want hype; they want to reach consumers with meaningful brand messages.  SMS, and targeted digital messaging, are powerful tools that can achieve exactly that.  While apps are fun to play around with, they’re expensive to make, offer questionable ROI, and the bulls eye is extremely small.

Pound for pound, SMS is the more effective and proven marketing channel.

Ski Resort Goes Social

Here’s a great example of a smart brand linking Facebook, Twitter and SMS to drive positive direct marketing results:

Alpine Meadows Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, California successfully launched a social media campaign on March 16 — and has experienced great results.

The resort kicked off the campaign by sending a message to its existing mobile database, Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Alpine is asking users to text AMPALS to 67463 for a chance to win a pair of season passes (weekday + Sunday).

To encourage visitors to spread the word, Alpine is allowing users to send friends a text to sign up and win as well.  Each referral also counts as an additional entry for the original customer.

Alpine has found its mobile list eager to pass along information about the contest.  Once fans of the resort realize that the more people they refer the better their chances of winning, subscription activity goes up considerably.

In fact, 45 percent of the entries have come from referrals, with the top referrer so far getting 20 of his friends to text in to sign up.

The campaign runs through April 15th, and Alpine is sending out periodic messages reminding people to text in to the keyword to enter the contest.

You can enter to win the passes by texting AMPALS to 67463.

Marketers Say Yes to Social Media. Or Not?

eMarketer recently posted the results to the “The Marketing Trends Report 2010” from Anderson Analytics and the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).

The report found “Marketing ROI” is currently the most important trend to marketing executives.

Social Media also made the top 10 trends for executives with 72 percent of respondents planning a social strategy for this year and 36 percent listing “Social Media ROI” as an important buzzword in 2010.

Don’t get too excited though, according to the same research, even though marketers know they need to have an overall social media strategy – they are also sick of hearing about it.

Along with being one of the most important buzz terms this year, “social media” was also found to be one of the most annoying.  Nearly 30 percent of those surveyed are sick of the phrase.  15 percent were annoyed specifically by Twitter.

That said, even if people are tired of hearing or reading about it (or not), social spending is predicted to increase in 2010 (which is not surprising).

Your best bet – look over the buzzwords and use it as a checklist for your 2010 marketing plan.  And maybe review the buzzwords and make sure you are addressing them (or intentionally not using them).

You can read eMarketer’s full post here.

How Consumers Use Mobile Internet

MediaPost’s Research Brief recently highlighted a survey from Ruder Finn on how Americans use the mobile internet.  The post is worth a quick read and provides some insight on how people use their phones (which is helpful for crafting a mobile strategy).

You can read the full post here.

The survey, the Mobile Intent Index, showed the driving factor behind people using their mobile phones to go online is immediacy.  And that people use their mobile phones as a “social connector” – with 91 percent of mobile users going online to socialize, compared to the 79 percent of traditional internet users.

According to the survey, the top social intents are:

• Instant messaging (62 percent)
• Forwarding emails (58 percent), content (40 percent) and photos (38 percent)
• Posting comments on social networking sites (45 percent)
• Connecting to people on social networking sites (43 percent)

Interestingly, the survey also found the mobile internet users are more likely to manage finances online than traditional internet users (1.6 times more likely) and that mobile intent differs by age and gender.

The study found:

• Men are 18 percent more likely to use their mobile phone to “escape”
• Youth are 9 percent more likely to shop over the mobile internet than the average mobile user.
• Seniors are 18 percent more likely to use the mobile internet to educate themselves.

You can check out Ruder-Finn’s full results here.

The More You Know – Talking LBS

I recently read a post on Geofencing and Location-Based Messaging from Mobhappy (you can read it here). After reading the post, I reached out to the author Carlo Longino to continue the conversation.

The result, I did a Q&A with Mobhappy on the value of LBS. You can read the full post here.

In the Q&A, we discuss the value of LBS from the consumer perspective, the need for compelling messaging, and just how “relevant” messages should be for the consumer.

Take a look at the post, and I would love to hear if you agree or disagree. As always, you can reach me at: msilk@waterfallmobile.com if you want to discuss further.

You can also follow Carlo Longino on Twitter @caarlo (or me at @WaterfallMobile).

– Matt

Cottonelle Wants to Know – Over or Under?

Cottonelle recently launched a multichannel campaign and I think they deserve some recognition for a job well done.  The campaign set out to answer one question – Over or Under?  And in doing that, they took a market (toilet paper) that is traditionally not very interactive and got people to engage with the brand and debate the question.

Well Done, Cottonelle!  You put a great multichannel campaign together that incorporated mobile, social networks, and WAP sites and you engaged the consumer.

The campaign allowed for voting via SMS, WAP, and online.  According to the brand, they found SMS to be extremely important because it allowed people to vote immediately and on the go after seeing outdoor ads (you can see an example of the outdoor ad to the right).

You could vote for yourself by texting UNDER or OVER to short code 30241, or by going online to: http://www.cottonellerollpoll.com/.

The campaign, of course, allowed for sharing your vote on Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally, Cottonelle incorporated mobile banners into the plan to drive consumers to a WAP site to vote at: http://VoteRollPoll.com.

The brand also allowed users to choose to receive the final tally announcing the winner at the end of voting – giving them another opportunity to connect with the consumer.

This is a great example of making marketing channels work together.  Other brands should take a lesson in consumer engagement done right from Cottonelle.

You can read more on the campaign at Mobile Marketer.

Digiday Mobile – Who’s Coming With Me?

I’m going to be in Los Angeles on Monday for Digiday: Mobile participating in a panel about location-based services – a topic that has been getting a lot of attention recently.

The Digiday panel, entitled “Location, Location, Location,” should be a very informative discussion about LBS – where carriers fit in; overcoming privacy concerns; the basics on geofencing and the technology that drives mobile marketing LBS; and ROI-tracking.

I’m very much looking forward to sharing the panel with reps from Verizon, NAVTEQ, JiWire and Geodelic.  And I am especially excited to share the stage with Steve Madden and to hear more about that brand’s mobile plans.

You can find the full Digiday agenda here.

If any Mobile Demystified readers will be in attendance, I’d love to meet up.  You can reach me at msilk@waterfallmobile.com.

See you in L.A.!

– Matt

Don’t Just Dive In To Social Media

Many high profile brands are using social media these days.  But beware: just opening a Twitter and Facebook account won’t automatically help you reach your business goals.  Social media strategy is just as important as social media itself – perhaps more so.

Yes, you should definitely activate some sort of social media for your brand.  If not, a more visible, more social competitor may edge out your market share.

But you need to set clear goals for what you want to accomplish with social media.  Defining success early is a smart way to monitor ROI.

As e-Marketer recently pointed out in an article on strategy in social media, with more and more brands in the social media game, the bar keeps being raised on what users expect.  Only the savviest will survive.

On the consumer side, users of social media know the difference between those companies that are “faking it” and those that are legitimately immersed in social media.

For instance, despite their recent difficulties with Kevin Smith, Southwest Airlines is clearly invested in Twitter.  Dunkin’ Donuts is clearly invested in both Facebook and Twitter, and has appointed a specific employee (“Dunkin’ Dave”) to be the chain’s social media face.

Equally as important as “real”ness is keeping a close watch on how social media marketing reflects your overall brand direction.  If it does not, consumers will either be confused or, worse still, annoyed that they seem to be getting contradictory messages from the same company.  Starbucks in particular has done a great job of making sure that all company voices are whistling the same tune.

To kick-start a social media plan, determine what your organization wants to use social media to accomplish.  This can range from brand-building to lead generation to relationship building.  e-Marketer recently found 82% of brands are using social media for brand-building; most likely, your strategy will be a combination of multiple goals.

Remember, just like in life, relationships take time to build – and you should expect the same from the social media world.  You need to commit time to getting the results you are looking for.

Location, Location, Location

Today Waterfall Mobile is announcing a new strategic partnership with WaveMarket to power location-enabled mobile messaging.

As Mobile Demystified readers know, I’ve had LBS (location-based service) on the brain recently, and that’s because of this exciting new capability that will now be available to Waterfall customers.

WaveMarket’s Veriplace® product can access the location of all 125MM phones on the AT&T and Sprint networks with no application download required.  Waterfall will be able to leverage that capability to bring still more targeted location-aware marketing to Msgme’s already robust skill set.

The full press release on Waterfall + WaveMarket is here.