My head is thronging with questions, queries, doubts, confusions all bundling upto frustration and impatience too. Well the first of these is why is the mobile industry limiting itself to only a few limited scenario in mobile marketing. Why isn’t the industry thinking beyond the Admobs and Inmobi of the day? Its upsetting to know that more players like them are emerging indigenously. I really wish to discuss the future and the trends of this with the evangelists sitting in the various forums out there. With all this I see myself as part of a mobile revolution where I wish to make the below mentioned key players aware of the game of mobile advertising and marketing about how broad, vast and innovative could our horizons be.
Atleast abroad, the Brands have realised it is no longer enough to ‘push’ marketing campaigns at consumers, they need to involve and engage with them to find new ways to create and retain loyalty. Indian brands need to understand that there is a need to PUSH SMS BLASTS.
Mobile has given brands a unique opportunity to do this and create a two-way relationship, ultimately building product awareness, driving sales and retaining loyalty. By using mobile as part of a marketing campaign brands can reach a specific target audience, via a time-sensitive, measureable medium.
Marketing / Digital Agencies
Mobile has transformed the media landscape majorly in the U.S and to some extent in India, with the big agencies such as Ogilvy launching interactive digital divisions that includes mobile services.
The increasing sophistication of the handsets themselves, with integrated browsers, media players, high resolution imaging and cameras give agencies more scope to work with to create interactive, innovative campaigns that help drive the desired consumer engagement.
Mobile Advertising Networks
Companies such as Admob, Inmobi and Enpocket partner with mobile web sites that enjoy high traffic and offer to run advertising [text-links and graphical banners] on a revenue share basis. They make this space available to advertisers via self-serve web platforms.
More innovative means are evolved for the Advertisers that can target their campaigns according to the characteristics of mobile handset that the ad appears on, such as location, make of handset and phone capability.
Search Engines
Many customers are accessing the mobile internet through established, web-based vendors such as Yahoo, Google and MSN, rather than use the network operator’s searching tools, putting the search engines in a strong position.
Mobile Apps are a better consideration to venture in this direction. This shall minimize typing and browser time spend.
Network Operators
They have traditionally charged consumers to buy digital content from their mobile portals, and are now beginning to share demographics and mobile media consumption insights with brands as they move to advertisers funded models. The operators are moving away from the walled garden approach to portals, opening up their network to third parties, to encourage data usage through the provision of new and innovative content.
My advice to them, don’t kill innovation!