For the first “official” blog post here, I want to dive into mobile marketing and share some breakthrough work we just launched for one of our clients, Pringles. Yep, Pringles + Mobile = Meaning.
Mobile rapidly is shaping up as the next big target for marketers’ efforts to reach their customers at a time when traditional media is losing its effectiveness. Nearly every consumer has a mobile phone or device, the technology is advancing to allow for better experiences (see Treo, iPhone), and geo-targeting offers the chance to, say, ping a pedestrian with a pizza ad just as she is walking by the pizza restaurant. Marketers are also intrigued by the chance to make a deal with phone networks who “own” their customers in a way similar to broadcast TV networks of old.
Despite the hype, mobile has been very slow to show a viable marketing model, mostly because people will not tolerate unwanted interruption on this most personal of devices. We already know that people are sensitive about having their phone numbers used for marketing. At least 76 percent of Americans have placed their numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. Studies by Nielsen in 2007 show that only 18 percent of people trust mobile advertising, and 67 percent of mobile-phone customers who use data services said that mobile ads are unacceptable.
The solution? Make the marketing meaningful.
A few companies have found that people actually will choose to engage with mobile marketing that helps them out. A recent Adweek story provided some great examples. Vicks is providing weather alerts via SMS. CoverGirl created a “ColorMatch” application that recommends makeup while women are shopping. And Visa launched a wine-and-cheese-pairing recommendation tool.
I’m proud to say my company, Bridge Worldwide, launched another great mobile tool just a few weeks ago. We are testing a mobile shopping list for the Pringles brand. We came up with the idea because we know we can significantly increase sales to Mom if we can just remind her of Pringles at the point of purchase. Meanwhile, we know Mom is increasingly planning grocery trips on her laptop. So it was natural to create an online shopping list tool that could be sent via SMS to her mobile phone.
We set up a way to read household panel data among our test group, which will tell us whether or not this process moves cases, the tool is limited to folks in a small test group, so I cannot share broadly; but we might be able to share results in the future. At least one other marketing blogger likes the idea.
Interestingly, just as developing nations are skipping telephone poles and “land lines” and going straight to mobile for their first phones, mobile might be the first medium that skips interruptive marketing entirely and goes straight to marketing with meaning.
Please send me any examples of mobile marketing tools you have created for your brand or clients. I just might feature them here.
