Don’t Bet Against Mobile Coupons

Time and again, mobile coupon redemption rates have proven to be exceptional when employed as part of both pilot and real-world marketing programs.

As Mobile Marketer concisely put it,

According to Forrester Research, 30 percent of consumers would like to receive mobile coupons.

Redemption rates for mobile coupons range from 5 percent to 15 percent, which is much higher than typical print coupon rates of 1 percent or less.

Thus I’m a little puzzled by this survey from Honeywell and Harris Interactive – which our friends at eMarketer have teed up with the headline “Consumers Slow to Take Advantage of Mobile Coupons.”

Really?  According to the survey, 50% of 18-to-34 year-olds said they would be willing to share their mobile numbers with retailers in order to receive coupons.  To me that screams “green light.”

Maybe the issue is how the questions were phrased – something that has been shown to substantially impact polling in political campaigns.  Obviously, if you ask somebody if they want more advertising in their lives…they’ll probably say no.

But as this generation ages, digital life – specifically organizing one’s activities, shopping and entertainment through mobile devices – will become the norm.  In fact, it already has.  What’s lagging is significant participation by major brands, which will mature mobile coupons as an established marketing channel.

Mobile couponing can take several forms:

• 2D bar codes
• QR codes
• Text coupons
• Calls-to-action driving customers to mobile Internet sites
• Calls-to-action driving customers to mobile apps
• Mobile sites that are themselves coupons
• Mobile apps that are coupons
• ….Or some combination of all of the above

I’ve already moved past the question of “whether or not mobile coupons will catch on.”  They will.  Trust me.  The real horse race is which of these competing technologies, and factions within the ecosystem, will win the day to power mobile couponing and other marketing efforts for major brands.

Oh, and one last thing to watch out for –

The killer app that could permanently dispense with any confusion in this arena will be cloud-based “closed loop redemption systems.”  These systems will allow a retailer to redeem a coupon from any of the above listed channels within their cloud, and will also give retailers the opportunity to seamlessly push coupons out to multiple channels.

Happy couponing, everybody.

Q&A with Mickey Alam Khan

It’s a new year, and today we’re debuting a new feature at Mobile Demystified: Guest Bloggers!

First up is our friend Mickey Alam Khan, editor-in-chief of Mobile Marketer. We wanted to get Mickey’s take on the mobile marketing space, and this email Q&A ensued.

WATERFALL MOBILE: Have any products or brands used mobile in a way that you’ve found to be especially smart or effective?

MICKEY ALAM KHAN: We find most brands in the apparel, travel, media, entertainment, retail and consumer packaged goods sectors get mobile. Their use of mobile banner ads for brand-building and engagement, SMS for loyalty programs, store drives and discounts, and applications for everything from information to shopping and transactions is transforming the use of mobile. The triumvirate of mobile Web, SMS and applications are ideal for brands with a decent mobile budget.

WM: Waterfall Mobile noticed a lot more major consumer brands activating their traditional media (TV, radio, print) with mobile calls to action in the second half of 2009. Have you observed this trend? What do you make of it?

MICKEY: The major trend we noticed last year was how mobile calls to action were increasingly integrated with other media such as television, radio, print and out-of-home. It indicates that marketers are wise to the chief benefit of mobile: driving traffic to other channels, or giving legs to other media. No medium can succeed on its own, and mobile is no different in this regard. SMS is the best tool to drive traffic to stores for discounts or sales. Similarly, applications are the perfect vehicles to deliver the latest deals or offers from the brand. And mobile Web sites are perfect for store locations, search and price-comparisons while out and about.

WM: Mobile applications get a lot of ink right now, but statistically far more people are using SMS. Do you think brands are buying into the hubbub (having an iPhone app for the sake of having an iPhone app) at the expense of more effective mobile messaging options?

MICKEY: Each mobile channel has its use. To convince a consumer to not only download the application but also regularly use it means that the loyalty battle has been won in that case. But there is no disputing that SMS is the most ubiquitous form of mobile advertising and marketing. It is low-tech and affordable, and is a language that every consumer understands. SMS is ideal for driving consumers to stores, and for delivering alerts, discounts, coupons and news of store openings and sales. Also, SMS is available on 99 percent of mobile phones in the marketplace.

WM: Mobile marketing ROI is an evergreen topic of discussion. How far do you think the industry is from uniform ROI metrics? Do the benefits of mobile outweigh any lingering questions of how to exactly calculate ROI?

MICKEY: We are on our way to getting uniform mobile metrics.

The Mobile Marketing Association has made great strides in this area. Besides, there shouldn’t be much trouble tracking mobile performance. Response to SMS is easily tracked at point of sale or via interactions, mobile Web banner click-throughs are recorded and application use data is easily accessible. So it is a myth that mobile can’t be measured for its ROI. Why isn’t the same question asked of television or print? Who knows how many people actually saw a commercial or read an ad? Mobile is way more measurable than the guesswork passing for metrics in TV and print.

The Dos and Don’ts of Holiday Mobile Marketing

“Make it Fun”
The Dos and Don’ts of Holiday Mobile Marketing

Giselle Tsirulnik over at Mobile Marketer recently posted a great list of the dos and don’ts of holiday season mobile marketing.

In case you missed them before Thanksgiving, I wanted to repost Giselle’s list here. It’s a must read for anyone pondering a holiday-timed mobile marketing program.

Drumroll, please…

1. Consider that these purchases are primarily for other people, so make sure to orient mobile offerings to that context.
2. Because it’s the holiday, if a brand doesn’t already have an established mobile market, it will need to do in-store tie-ins – “Can’t find that perfect gift? Text GIFT to 123456 for a link to our holiday gift finder!”
3. Consumers during the holiday season are typically tight on both time and money, so anything that can be done to help them save in either department is a nearly always a winner.
4. Allocate placements to on-the-go, “time saving” categories such bite-sized news, information, entertainment or even communications channels like mobile IM or email – all categories that are endemic to mobile.
5. Use tactics like store locators, discounts or just key product information or tips made mobile – basically anything that can make the lives of consumers a little bit easier will always be a hit during the holidays.
6. Make sure if you are launching or have a mobile marketing application, it is compatible with the full range of devices out there (no flash).
7. Think of the least common denominator in screen size and browser capability and make it work. Remember, in aggregate, BlackBerry has a larger penetration than the iPhone and it doesn’t do flash at all.
8. Keep your mobile marketing application lightweight. Not every area has 3G coverage.
9. Make sure messaging is consistent with other channels and information is accurate.
10. Make it fun.

Giselle makes an excellent point in her article – one that is not only important during the holiday season, but year round.  Keep the shopper in mind! The more brands integrate consumers’ interests and behavior into marketing plans, the easier it will be keep them engaged (and buying stuff) year round.

Here’s to an outstanding, and profitable, holiday season for all.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Mobile Marketer requested my take on Google’s recent acquisition of AdMob, and what it means for the mobile marketing space in general.

I don’t want to steal any thunder (or traffic) from our good friends there, so you can read my thoughts on the matter here.

Direct Marketing Association Launches First Mobile Marketing Day, February 26

Mobile Marketer

“The use of SMS text messaging, mobile Web sites and applications, mobile coupons and other mobile vehicles in direct-to-consumer efforts is well-documented each day in our publication,” he said. “This event will complement that coverage in explaining the relevance of mobile to direct marketing, especially in these tough economic times.”

DMA’s Mobile Marketing Day

View article.

Best Practices: Mobile Improves Healthcare Marketing

Mobile Marketer

“Today, SMS messaging is really the only viable, interactive means of reaching people on a massive scale around the nation. The mobile channel also represents an enormous untapped potential for changing health behavior on a massive scale.”

“(Mobile marketing) has the opportunity to help make the healthcare system more efficient, to help agencies make better use of existing data, to help reduce costs and to help consumers improve their health and their lives through a medium they understand and embrace.”

The healthcare industry is beginning to leverage the advantages of mobile marketing. Healthcare professionals and marketers look for innovative ideas to increase communication and enahance relationships with loyal patients. With text, voice and WAP mobile marketing, healthcare marketers can extend branding reach, create two-way relationships with patients and provide interactive customer support and follow up.

For more information on text, voice and WAP mobile marketing, please contact your account manager or email sales@msgme.com.

View article.

Ford Turns to Mobile to Showcase New Car Model

Mobile Marketer

“Ford Flex saw a 1.41 percent click-through-rate from a mobile campaign that Ford Motor Co. used to promote the launch of the new car model by driving consumers to the Flex WAP site.”

Ford created a mobile WAP site to promote its 2009 Ford Flex. Last Fall, Ford created a mobile WAP site for its Lincoln MKS to engage and target young mobile savvy consumers. With automotive ad spends second only to retail, Ford is targeting audiences and extending its reach with a cost-effective mobile channel with real-time campaign results and analysis.

Related articles:

Industry Case Study: Ford’s Lincoln MKS Mobile Campaign

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Advances in MMS Add Interactive Tools for Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketer

Improvements in application-to-peer MMS (MM7) interoperability announced by the Mobile Marketing Association, will offer cross-carrier, interactive multimedia marketing opportunities for engaging consumers through their mobile devices.

MMS platform providers have correspondingly added advanced features for the deployment of A2P MMS technology in the marketing space, improving the creative presentation and interactivity of the service, including:

• Multiple slides of content or marketing “events” in a single MMS message
• MMS delivery receipts
• MMS device discovery and content adaptation of images, audio and video
• MMS hyperlink adaptation, shortened and click-through instructions based on device
• Multiple click-to-call links in a single MMS message
• Multiple click-to-web links in a single MMS message
• Optional terms and conditions slide, with text or spoken audio
• Incoming MMS keyword matching
• MMS bar code and NFC (Near Field Communication) object delivery
• DRM technology to manage the right to share and forward content

MMS is not a stand-alone technology but actually complementary to SMS.

“More importantly, MMS is likely to stand apart as a messaging technology offering marketers rich media opportunities, the immediacy of a user’s inbox, interactivity, the viral component of content sharing and an audience already familiar with and using messaging.”

View article.

Verizon Wireless Sets Record with SMS Messages Over Holidays

Mobile Marketer

Verizon Wireless has set a record with the number of SMS text messages processed on its network in the holiday season.

The wireless carrier processed an estimated 1.6 billion text messages on Wednesday, Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve. This was a 20 percent jump from an average Wednesday in December 2008.

View article.

SMS Short Code Marketing Maturing: Nielsen Report

Mobile Marketer

Advertisers are ramping up SMS short code marketing, according to a new Nielsen Mobile report.

“The text-message audience is there, it’s now up to marketers to create a reason that consumers would want to relate to them through such a personal and immediate medium.”

– Nic Covey, Chicago-based director of insights for Nielsen.

View Article.