World Mobile Marketing Association Forum - Berlin, Germany.
- Notes from Nigel Shanahan MD of Rapide

Berlin hosted this year’s World Mobile Marketing Forum. As an Executive Member of the UK MMA I was asked to present Rapide’s perspective on using the mobile channel as the perfect way to provide instant thoughts from customers. Below I've highlighted some of the key points from the Forum:

Downloaded Applications Vs Content Rich Mobile Internet Sites.

There were statistics galore at this year's world MMA forum as you can imagine. Every presenter seemed compelled to offer their own supporting facts, my favourites of which were:

1. There are now twice as many mobiles as TV sets in the world!
2. The average American between the age of 18 and 24 sends a huge 2000 SMS/month!

My main observation from the forum was that the Industry is split between those that believe downloaded applications are better compared to those who believed rich mobile internet websites were better. The former are split between big supporters of the iPhone (and the applications that support it) and the ‘rest’ (any other handset).

There was definitely some confusion over how big the marketplace is for iPhone applications and, of course, who was currently holding the number one slot on the best seller list (4 claimed they were). One thing was for certain though, the iPhone has been wildly successful and the applications look fantastic.

The challenge is that whomever decides to create one is, by default, targeting only one part of a large market.

At the other end of the spectrum the supporters of ‘mobile internet’ accept that getting all handset owners using/accessing their content means offering the lowest common denominator of function. The clever guys, however, seemed to be able to optimize the site’s function according to the capabilities of the
handset (demonstrated by the Auto-Trader presentation discussed below).

Great Mobile Marketing Innovation

Nike & Turkcell

These organisations took mobile marketing in their stride and integrated the use voice messaging within MMS messages. Some very interesting ideas used creatively to enhance and boost their recruitment processes.

Coke

Fantastic mobile marketing campaign that delivered around 100K mobile device Christmas cards. It wasn't a huge campaign but its effectiveness is clearly demonstrated in a sobering 7% increase in 'Brand Equity.

BMW

Another big brand name that has seen the power of mobile marketing! They carried out an excellent presentation that highlighted 5 Do's and Don'ts, splitting the world between things that save time (mobile marketing!) and things that kill time (slow, expensive, traditional methods!).

Lufthansa

11% of their check-ins are now carried out entirely on a mobile phone! It doesn't stop here though, Lufthansa have been leaders in pioneering the integration of Mobile Marketing using it to assist with flight alerts, delays, bookings, reservations, check-in status and more. Impressively they have integrated QR codes and discovered their very own 10 Golden Rules for mobile marketing.

Procter & Gamble

This organisation bravely paved the way with international mobile marketing execution. Alongside this they carried out impressive Olay redemption campaigns that mean they could target the distribution of samples effectively (to those who expressed an interest) which in turn cut direct selling/sample offering costs by 80% as there was no need for direct staff (and 80% of brand recall was from the mobile as opposed to other media).

Auto-Trader

After implementing a mobile marketing strategy they found that over 1million used car searches were carried out on mobile handsets in August 09 alone. This has moved now from a simple marketing tool to a point of purchase mechanism on the forecourt! Evidence that mobile marketing is changing the world rapidly! Great use of the handset to make the whole process feel just like a mobile application when in fact it was essentially a very well designed mobile website.

TurkCell – TORKO game

280,000 downloads free of charge for their fun viral marketing game. It was as simple as this - take free kicks and compete with each other! A huge brand awareness success from such a simple and effective use of mobile marketing!

Pepsi

Pepsi have managed to draw in 80million participants over the course of 200 campaigns in Turkey (the 2nd biggest population in Europe, and biggest mobile user). 18million participated in the Pepsi instant win campaign – called ‘UTC’ – ‘under the cap’, with a massive 57% redemption rate. Participants were asked to send in MMS pictures which were then voted on – it is widely believed to be the world’s biggest UTC campaign. Participants also received free credits – 2 voice mins or 5 sms credits which is an area of Mobile Marketing technology we at Rapide offer (along with all the other points you've read).

Nestle

By using contactless 'Near Field Communications' in Japan Nestle have been able to enhance customer experience and loyalty by offering mobile discounts at the point of purchase.

On a lighter note to finish:

There were lots of great commercial videos shown at the forum to highlight various points regarding campaigns that integrated the mobile with other media e.g.TV ads, but my favourite (and funniest) is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIjN3F6rGNc

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