Inside Mobile Marketing

I suspected as much, but app store data is hard to come by as Apple does not reveal insights other than  total downloads and segmented top download lists and companies like Pinch are few and far between. To date, most iPhone developers have been adding simple tracking methods within their apps on their own accord so the data available to advertisers is limited and hard to come by. Aggregated iPhone analytics is a niche “industry” whose time has come so that Media planners can get a better sense if the “channel” is working or not.  Companies to watch include -Pinch Media, Flurry, Medialets and Admob to some extent.  

From a marketing perspective, brands looking to make any real impact with an application really need to focus on the Media plan surrounding the launch of a new application to get the app ranked on Apple’s top 100 or better lists as it appears this is the make or break bar to hit in terms of a tipping point.

This brings up another issue – driving traffic to iPhone applications isn’t exactly a well known science yet.  Yes, many marketers are realizing you can deep link to an application from the Web to the iTunes page where the app resides, but others are incorrectly thinking they can buy their way into sponsoring the featured apps section within iTunes.

Marketers should be cognizant of the rise of the QWERTY keyboard found on both Smart and Feature phones as the keyboard’s layout negates the practice of using only word-based mnemonics to represent shortcodes and phone numbers in marketing materials.

WHY? With QWERTY, the standard 12-button keypad and its corresponding letters that have long dominated both landline and mobile phones is displaced with a new layout and thus QWERTY users are unable to tap out mnemonic call-to-actions if the numbers are not displayed as well. TRANSLATION – QWERTY users are precluding from participating in campaigns.  Now it may not seem like a big deal, but I have seen some examples where major U.S. companies have made this mistake in their advertising (e.g. Text CHASE –  Another example would be just displaying 1-800-FLOWERS without the corresponding numbers).  

BEST PRACTICE:  marketers should always display the numbers near their mnemonics.  For example, Text CHASE becomes Text CHASE (24273) and Call 1-800-FLOWERS features (1-800-356-9377) next to it.

Interesting Side Notes:

• The NPD Group in Q3 noted, “Mobile phones with a QWERTY keyboard experienced the greatest year-over-year rise in sales; 30 percent of handsets were sold with this feature in Q3 2008, versus just 11 percent the year prior.”

• Nicholas Covey, director of insights for Nielsen Mobile, attributed the spike in messaging to the spread of QWERTY-style keypads, whose users send 54 percent more text messages than those with ordinary keypads. 

What caught my eye in the coverage of this campaign was the statement that Apple’s iPhone users could participate. How’s this I wondered, as most iPhone owners are now aware that their phone’s Bluetooth capabilities precludes them from using the radio frequency for file transfer or connecting to devices other than headsets. To solve this issue, ACE’s Chief Marketing Officer Matt Gaines explained to me that they have enabled their Bluetooth transmitters to also act as WiFi base stations – thus iPhone users would detect the signal (if scanning), connect and receive the intended marketing message or visit a particular website. (To be honest, I’m not sure what the exact iPhone user experience was yet.)

For marketers, the real challenge in a campaign like this is the creation and display of the Call-To-Action. Creating awareness for new technical applications is always a massive challenge! Unfortunately, I was not present at the parade to witness any signage and the resulting experience on my handset – so I’ll have to wait for some reader input and wait to see ACE’s campaign results.

While Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones are estimated to have upwards of an 80% penetration rate in the U.S., using them for anything but hands-free headsets can be assumed to be very low. According to ABI Research, 14.5 million Bluetooth headset units shipped in 2007 and this number is expected to hit 18M this year and 20+ million in 2009. The NPD Group had some 2007 data indicating that only about 40+% of users with the technology actually used it – and you can assume primarily for connecting to hands-free headsets.

SideNote: Nielsen Mobile estimated that there were about 3.6M iPhone users in the U.S. at the end of Q3. Nielsen also pointed out that the iPhone 3G has fared very well in NYC and San Francisco.

WOW! That’s quite a lot of text messages, however a couple things are worth noting as a Mobile Marketer:

• If you look at data from either comScore/MMetrics, Nielsen Mobile regarding the percentage of U.S. subscribers that actually send at least 1 text message within a month, than these aforementioned numbers are essentially generated by approximately 50% of the total wireless subscribers in the U.S. (Note: Jupiter Research states that approx 62% of wireless bases uses text messaging)

• These numbers are DOMINATED by peer-to-peer messages versus messages generated through participation in a shortcode program (aka Application-to-peer). comScore/MMetrics has stated the following:

Just 6% of teen mobile users responded to a poll or contest via short code–i.e., voting for an “American Idol” contestant–in the past month, slightly higher than the overall population (4.5%) but still not a critical mass. Even fewer teens responded to a text-message ad (1.6%), in contrast to the 2.4% of overall mobile users. And just 1.5% of teens responded to an offline ad that directed them to text a short code in.

• Also — VeriSign’s wireless aggregation business stated that A2P, such as news alerts, ring tones, promotional video clips, and enterprise messages sent to mobile users rose sharply in Q2 2008, from approximately 186 million messages in Q1 2008 to approximately 249 million (A2P) messages in Q2 2008, an increase of close to 33 percent. NOW, Verisign processed a total of 52 BILLION messages in Q2 2008 – which would mean that less than 1% of these SMS being sent were A2P or marketing-based (in some sort of fashion)

This is great news for Mobile marketers! One of the largest obstacles to consumer adoption of the 2D code tactic has been addressed in a huge way. Getting the application pre-installed will go a long way towards the goal of making 2D codes a mobile marketing tactic with some decent reach. Across the EU5 and the U.S., the average percentage of consumers downloading utility applications to their handsets was 3.9% according to a MMetrics/comScore’s Q1 Market Summary. MMetrics also calculated that these countries averaged approx 4% with regards to consumers accessing already downloaded applications.

POSITIVE POINTS:

• Samsung is the world’s second largest handset manufacturer and features a global market share of 15.4%. In the U.S. the company had a share of 20% after the second quarter of this year.
• The NYC-based Scanbuy had also run some trials with Sprint in the past, but there has been little word as to the success of that pilot and what Sprint’s plans are for future with regards to 2D codes.
• Scanbuy’s 2D reader is capable of reading multiple code formats such as QR and Datamatrix.

CONCERNS:

• The 2D vendors are still plagued by a lack of standardization in terms of code formats. Marketers and Consumers should not have to concern themselves as to which code format to use and if the reader will work or not.
• It is unclear which U.S. Carriers will adopt the Scanbuy reader – I am guessing Sprint due to previous history.
• Education is obviously another MAJOR hurdle to overcome with regards to consumer adoption – how will Samsung.. the Carriers, Brands (much like Ralph Lauren) and Scanbuy promote the application??? This is a BIG question.
• Using the reader application is still a PULL application that will invoke the web browser, SMS, etc.. Marketers are keen on sending 2D codes to the handset via MMS or WAP that could be scanned in retail environment at point of sale – think coupon redemption. This leads to the major issue of POS laser scanners vs. optical scanners (lasers can’t read 2D codes) and lack of standard code format.

Not too shabby reaching 18% of the 9,000+ concert goers – plus the conversion rate on the “Accept” bluetooth communication portion of the bluetooth process was impressive. However, it would be helpful to see the conversion rate for the ACTUAL downloads that occurred after users did accept the Bluetooth connection request. In my mind, this would give me some indication as to whether the concert goers were confused by the incoming bluetooth communication (because so new) and just hit “yes” OR they felt comfortable using the handset to follow through on the mobile download experience. I would also want to know if the content being offered was premium or free.

Marketers continue to gripe about the Mobile Channel’s lack of benchmarks to help them gauge the success of their Mobile efforts. Certainly the lack of sharing by experimenting brands is understandable from a competitive standpoint, but a little sharing could go a long way. Kudos to Adidas’ Chris Murphy at the past MMA Marketing conference in New York for sharing an in-depth look at his company’s integrated Mobile campaign that was run with help from agencies Carat & Isobar.

Also noted in the aforementioned RCR Wireless Article, Nicholas Covey, director of insights for Nielsen Mobile said, “much of the lack of transparency in mobile is the fact that the industry has yet to develop real-time measurement systems”.. “Largely, the mobile industry right now is not like the television or online industries where you get overnight ratings,” Covey explained. “Mobile is generally measured in 3-day increments.”

Well, I agree that at the macro-aggregate level that Nielsen Mobile deals with they don’t get real-time metrics, but at an application level, i.e. the mobile marketing company and aggregator, that is NOT the case. The beauty of Mobile as a direct response mechanism is that it is instant. If I configure a mobile marketing campaign for a Txt2Vote or Sweepstakes, etc.. I can instantly see when results start rolling in.