In the article “Nokia Moves Closer to Being an Ad Seller” published on Ad Age, it talks about Nokia’s motion to acquire Enpocket and dive into mobile marketing. Is this the beginning of mobile advertisement standardization? It’s not too far fetched that Nokia would develop a mobile advertisement standard and deploy it on not only their phones, but create an industry wide standard.
According to Enpocket’s official press release: “Nokia will accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business, leveraging Enpocket’s platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators. In addition to key assets, through this transaction Nokia is gaining a team with strong expertise in global mobile advertising across disciplines.”
With mobile technology taking leaps and bounds over the past few years and with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in June of 2007, mobile marketing will be forever evolving. While iPhone’s full web browser Safari might change the way we think of mobile advertisement, Nokia has several phones with adobe’s flash technology built in which can serve rich media advertisements, which the iPhone and others don’t currently have. Early forms of mobile advertising such as text messaging might find itself amongst other new forms as phones develop and video and messaging capabilities evolve. Since mobile marketing is still evolving, it’s hard to say whether there will ever be a standard form of mobile advertising.
We will just have to wait and see where this new venture for Nokia takes mobile advertising and whether it will bring a standard to the industry.
I’ve been reading up on Twitter (http://twitter.com) for a couple of weeks now. I’ve checked out a few tweets and seen it referenced in numerous places on the web. I haven’t quite decided if I want to tweet or if I’d use it all that much. It’s kind of a cool idea to be able to take your conversations with you and access them from your computer, through the web, or with my cell phone.
To tell you the truth, I was interested in seeing who used twitter and why I might use it. I stumbled upon apple, dell, and nike. It suddenly dawned on me that it’s not so much of who uses twitter, but who doesn’t use twitter. I came up on an article about dell and twitter on dell’s web page saying that they were going to start posting coupon codes on there for the poeple their network to use. What a great idea. Why not give your loyal fans, especially the ones who get your twitter stream, the incentive to be even more of a brand evangelist than they probably already are.
While reading more and more companies twitter logs, I realized that they are all following a similar twitter code of ethics. I’m not sure if there’s an actual code of ethics model for twitter, but they seem to be following the same path. I noticed that the companies were posting occasionally. They were posting relevant information and not crossing the border into spam. Sure, they could send brand messages and elevator pitches every minute of every day, but they were using them in moderation.
It’ll be interesting to see if twitter makes its way into the agency I work for… into a campaign for one of our clients in an attempt to reach out to their loyal customers. I’m sure that soon I’ll be on twitter. See you there.
On a recent flight to Chicago I thumbed through the Sky Mall catalog and discovered that you can order via text message. A really cool idea and convenient service to offer. My only question is how am I supposed to order what I saw in the catalog on my flight if cell phones cannot be used? Are they expecting me to send my order before taking off, or during the busy scuffle to exit the plane? This, in my opinion is a good idea executed badly.
The latest buzz in marketing is text messaging. Many companies have some sort of tie in to texting, whether it is text to win, or text to have fun. Such is the case at a recent Linkin Park concert that I went to late this summer. On each side of the main stage was one huge LCD monitor which would display a number you can send a text message to, which would then be qued to be displayed on those main screens. These screens would display the text messages, as well as advertisement for the “live” concert CD and were displayed between the band performances which made for a fun wait time between the bands, which led to very few people getting up and walking around between the bands because they were all waiting to see their messages get displayed, as well as the fun and funny other text messages from the other concert goers. This was genious of Verizon to do so. It was both entertaining and fun. I’m sure their sales in the days following each concert in each of those cityies increased. How could you not remember the company whose logo you were staring at on the large screens next to the text messages for 8 hours? I mean, I can’t even tell you the names of the other advertisers with crap plastered all over the concert.
I remember reading the article “Reaching More Customers With a Simple Text Message” in the New York Times about text messaging being a new way to communicate with consumers and this was a great example. Just thinking about some of the clients I work with, I know that they could do something as compelling as this and similar to get consumers to think about their brands. A few weeks ago, after reading the story I started brainstorming ways for my clients to use this marketing tool. I was astounded how easy it was to come up with ideas that revolved around using a text message. One idea was to allow customers to sign up for my client’s text message list to receive special coupons via text message that could be shown at purchase. Another idea I had come up with was a trivia game at local sporting events. Fans could send a text message with who they thought would win, or who the MVP of the game would be, etc. and it would take a poll to display throughout the game. As a reward for playing along, they would be sent a coupon incentive for use later at restaurants to receive discounts on food after the sports event.
I’m sure every agency could brainstorm fun and engaging ways for consumers to interact with our clients’ brands through this creative medium. Why would some of our clients pass at this idea? Well, some reasons might be because of budget, some might be because a client might not be comfortable trying new marketing ideas, others might have a different reason. I do not consider myself a brand advocate of Verizon Wireless and I have never even considered them when searching for my wireless provider, but I had a fun, engaging experience with the brand at the concert, which I have to say has made me like the brand more.
I’m raising my digital glass to cell phone marketing!
A couple months back I took part in a focus group for quick serve dining and restaurant dining. The focus group focused on the future of the food industry. The client wanted to know how its customer base wanted to be served when they are on the go. One proposed solution is a to go only store for the national chain restaurant. Moreover, they proposed the ability to order your food through email or by your cell phone. This is as convenient as it is genious!
About 2 weeks ago, I was heading home after work waiting in the stop and go traffic. There was little to see except the bumper of the car in front of me, so I naturally started thinking of what I wanted for dinner that evening. I knew that what was on the menu wasn’t the most appealing that night and wanted to venture out to pick something up for my family. I started thinking of the places that offered something that sounded good, and Chili’s mouthwatering burgers sounded good. I then started to think back to the focus group I was part of and thought, this would be a good time to have the on the go ordering.
I’ve ordered from my local Chili’s before by phone and had a not so smooth experience. During my previous experience, I decided to call and order it to go. The phone rang and rang and rang. Nobody answered. Then I hung up and dialed again and eventually someone picked up only to put me on hold for about 10 minutes. Once they returned they rushed through my order, didn’t repeat any of it and ended the call quickly. When I arrived to pick up my meal, it was wrong. If I had the ability to write the order myself for them to see, this problem wouldn’t have happened and I wouldn’t have had to wait so long.
How convenient, and easy would it be to be able to send an email from work on your way out to place your order and drop by on the way home to pick it up? How much more convenient would it have been to order by text message from my car while stuck in traffic? Would my order have been right if I had been able to write it out for them? These questions, I’m sure will one day be answered when more businesses move in that direction.
