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Mobile marketing, has it crashed and burned?

Does anyone like mobile marketing? That said, does anyone like advertising? Aside from the odd advert that you’d choose to watch anyway – The Cadbury Gorilla and it’s spin offs for example – my friends and I simply tolerate them because they fund the programme.

On Firefox I use Ad Blocker Plus so I don’t even see them on banners – it speeds the download process up no end.

So it’s not really a surprise to any of the friends that have been strawpolled that marketing to your mobile hasn’t taken off in the UK even though the market is saturated.

According to Precision Marketing:

The popularity of mobile marketing has only risen by 9 per cent in that past five years, despite the saturation of mobile phones in the UK, according to a new report.

The research, conducted by G2 Data Dynamics via its panel of 30,000 consumers, reveals only 9 per cent of consumers are more receptive to mobile marketing than they were five years ago.

Despite advances in technology giving marketers more opportunities to target users via their handsets, mobile phone owners still appear resistant to mobile marketing.

The results show that women are mostly more receptive, with 12 per cent agreeing compared to 7 per cent of men who said they were not very receptive to mobile marketing.

G2 Data Dynamics commercial and operations director Alan Thorpe says: “It’s clear that people are still to accept that mobile phones can be used for marketing instead of just communicating with one another. If marketers want to break down this barrier they must ensure their mobile marketing campaigns are based on customer insight into individual preferences to ensure better targeting and reduced consumer annoyance.”

It’s not really rocket science. Marketing is seen by many as an intrusion so get them to sign up for it first. Make adverts have something relevant to the person other than ‘you’re near Starbucks, want a coffee?’ and set them up for Facebook / Twitter first.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Interesting.
    I'm on Blyk, and obviously, it is pure mobile-marketing; and I assume a lot of money is to be made out of it, but to be honest the adverts have never really made me want to go and buy a product. Even when I got a voucher for a free bottle of Lucazade, I couldn't be persuaded to go and try and product I know I don't like.

    Previously, I spent five years with Virgin Mobile (who I loved), and I did get the occasional advert here and there, and they were definitely aimed at an older audience, not the twelve year old that I was.

    I don't think mobile-marketing being used to it's full potential; I mean, a lot more could be done to make products a lot more enticing, and as you said, keep you informed by your location.

    Even Blyk, seem a little incapble of advertising according to preference, and do need to build a much more indepth system of anaylsis and understanding. That is where I think advertising is heading. As Facebook tried to do, by using profile information to make advertising more relevent, the same could be said for the mobile market. I would be happy, for Blyk to ask me proper questions about what I like, and send out questionnaires on my views so that they could get a comprehensive view… Then again, that would be too much to ask!

    As for Ad-Blocker Plus – ingenious! I couldn't live without it.

    Samantha.

  2. Question is – do you mean M obile Marketing – or Mobile advertising. Couldn't agree more if you mean Mobile advertising (i.e. banner ads on your phone). Won't be that successful until coinnections are (much) faster AND consumers now they aren't paying data charges as they watch it (slowly) appear on screen. Couldn't disagree more on Mobile Marketing (i.e using mobile as part (often THE main part) of integrated campaigns. Mobile CRM is expanding exponentially – and “pull” campaigns still attract millions & millions of users per campaign.

    Anyway – in not too long a time – there won't be any “mobile advertising” just web pages that know when they are being viewed on a mobile device. (c.f. iPhone).

  3. I think we're asking the wrong question. Isn't it 'Marketing, has it crashed and burned?'. And as a result, we have to change or die.

    Mobile marketing and advertising will only be successful when it's used properly. It's not so much about the channel as to how it's used (this is applicable to any channel actually). And increasingly, mobile will be the key channel via which marcomms (short for Marketing Communications – there's a clue in the name) happens. Ultimately it's about communication and this is two way in our networked 2.0 world. And that's still a tough call for many businesses to get their heads round as they've previously left their marketing agencies to have the external conversations whilst they focus on making widgets, chocolate or whatever.

  4. I think we're asking the wrong question. Isn't it 'Marketing, has it crashed and burned?'. And as a result, we have to change or die.

    Mobile marketing and advertising will only be successful when it's used properly. It's not so much about the channel as to how it's used (this is applicable to any channel actually). And increasingly, mobile will be the key channel via which marcomms (short for Marketing Communications – there's a clue in the name) happens. Ultimately it's about communication and this is two way in our networked 2.0 world. And that's still a tough call for many businesses to get their heads round as they've previously left their marketing agencies to have the external conversations whilst they focus on making widgets, chocolate or whatever.

  5. I think we're asking the wrong question. Isn't it 'Marketing, has it crashed and burned?'. And as a result, we have to change or die.

    Mobile marketing and advertising will only be successful when it's used properly. It's not so much about the channel as to how it's used (this is applicable to any channel actually). And increasingly, mobile will be the key channel via which marcomms (short for Marketing Communications – there's a clue in the name) happens. Ultimately it's about communication and this is two way in our networked 2.0 world. And that's still a tough call for many businesses to get their heads round as they've previously left their marketing agencies to have the external conversations whilst they focus on making widgets, chocolate or whatever.

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