In brief: Kicking off a podcast series on mobile marketing with views from companies across what I’m calling the engagement ecosystem. Over the next weeks we’ll hear from brands, agencies, consumers – the works. The focus: approaches and strategies aimed at turning the one-off sales pitch into an ongoing conversation. As Dan Parker, CEO of the mobile and digital marketing agency Sponge, puts it – it’s all about turning annoying advertising into a service people will accept and appreciate.

Give the people what they want? On traditional media – such as TV – it’s a guessing game. But on a fiercely personal device such as the mobile phone, brands can start a conversation (using SMS or MMS – or both, for example) with people to just ask. Research shows people will volunteer personal information if they perceive that they are getting value in return – and part of that value is getting advertising that is relevant. Even better if that advertising is also life-simplifying.

A prime example of this is Amazon, which cleverly includes recommendations (translated: advice about what you could/should buy) in its conversations with customers online. As Dan puts it: “That is where advertising has crossed a line at that point in time. It’s now become a service that I appreciate rather than an intrusion that I do not.” The challenge – and the opportunity – is all around harnessing “to communicate to people things that they’re really genuinely interested in. That’s when that advertising starts to become a service for people in helping making their life more convenient and connect[ing] them with the things they want, when they want them.”

Dan – who also hosted the global launch of Optism, a permission-based mobile marketing solution from Alcatel-Lucent that bridges gaps between operators and advertisers – also speaks frankly about what he calls the “relationship gulf” that separates brands/agencies from mobile operators. As he sees it: The key question is how well the network operators embrace their data. “While they offer an ability to communicate with people, they’re just really a pipe at the end of the day. The moment they open up their data and their understanding of the customers… allowing brands to utilize that understanding to communicate more effectively, they [mobile operators] suddenly become a very rich media partner.”

Among the highlights

ASKING PERMISSION: It’s imperative. Dan believes brands should ask people for permission to communicate with them. The customer information a brand gains as a result is “richer and more detailed.” Understanding it and linking it to relevant brand messages allows brands to “actually developing things that are going to be very, very powerful for both the consumer and the brand.” Dan also shares an excellent case study of a campaign his company did for Birds Eye foods that recorded a whopping 11 percent response rate (!).

By way of background, the Birds Eye campaign started off as a fairly straightforward text to win campaign – with the short code details printed on the package. Sponge used the information (it knew the food people bought because they were texting in the short code printed on the pack in the first place) to deliver a product related text. The agency created three different databases, each relevant to a product group.

The first was generic nutritional information. So, Sponge sent text messages such as: Did you realize that five chicken dippers have less fat than a pork sausage? The second was recipe information. So, Sponge sent a product-related recipe idea by text. The third and most interesting offer was product suggestions. Dan tells me that cross-selling technique dramatically increased sales of specific product ranges within the Birds Eye food categories. In the end, the database of people who opted in to receive ongoing communications from Birds Eye was well over 100,000 (!).

MOBILE BUDGETS: What Dan sees tells him the conditions are perfect for significant growth following a recession that saw brands put the brakes on mobile spending. “We’re certainly seeing a trend this year that says that the foot is coming off the brake….We’re seeing an immense amount of interest and we’re seeing people talk more seriously about their budgets and having proper goals and expectations of what they might be able to achieve with the medium.”

WHAT WE NEED?: “Results. I don’t think there’s anything more complicated than that, is that we need to show tangible results that says if you spend X, then you make Y because that’s the way of the world economy these days. I don’t think mobile is ever going to be able to offer quite the sort of exciting brand pizzazz that you get from a big glossy TV advert, but what it can do is put more people in your store, more people buying your product, or more people enquiring about your services. So, great case studies that show good results is what we need above all else in this industry.”

WHAT’S NEXT: brands have to get better at engagement marketing. It’s about using permission and context to deliver campaigns such as the Bird’s Eye campaign to continue the conversation with consumes long after the campaign is over. Re-marketing is therefore on the top of the agenda. Dan also sees excitement around apps and location- linked advertising – as long as it makes life easier for the consumer.

MY TAKE:

A welcome look at the issues from an agency passionate about the business imperative to deliver helpful information instead of annoying advertising. Mobile marketing is on the march again – and with that momentum comes the realization that the best way to deliver people advertising they will accept and appreciate may be to ask them first.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. [14:36]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Editor’s note: The series continues in two weeks with the views of other companies in the engagement ecosystem. We’ll here from brands and agencies and delve into research that captures the view of the youth consumer.

Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG client and supporter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Briefing Rooms, Featured, Location-based services, Mobile Advertising, Optism, Personalization, Podcasts, Recommendation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.