Mobile Marketers - Take your cue from the theatre

On Wednesday last week the Independent reported how actor Richard Griffiths was given a standing ovation in how he dealt with an audience member who couldn't seem to silence their phone during his performance of Heroes at the Wynhdam theatre. You can read the article entitled Independent Online Edition > Actor wins ovation as he stages attack on phone offender.

It seems that the woman in question had let her phone go off 3 different times before Griffiths finally pinpointed her and asked, "Is that it, or will it be ringing some more?" And I can remember saying the same thing about some mobile marketing messages that I would receive in a flurry -- "Is that all - or will there be more?!"

Kevin Spacey weighs in as well.

As artistic director of the Old Vic Spacey has declared the theatre a phone free zone stating, "You have to respect that there is some degree of behavior that we expect in the theatre and we are going to demand it at the Old Vic."

Marketers would do well to listen up!

Marketing to someone on their mobile phone is not unlike letting your personal phone ring and interrupt a performance at the theatre. What you think is a great deal may be a complete annoyance and interruption to someone who is trying to concentrate on something completely unrelated.

All of this brings me back to the guidelines that I try to promote when it comes to mobile marketing: It has got to be more than clever - it has to be TRVR! Timely - Relevant - Valuable - Requested!

It's not your parent's direct marketing...

Mobile marketing is different than most other forms of direct marketing. It's not a flyer that you find littering the pavement and simply walk past, nor is it a door drop/mail slot piece that you move from your hallway to your wastebasket when you get home, it's not an e-mail that gets filtered into your SPAM folder and it's not a telemarketing call that gets screened by your Caller ID. Mobile Marketing is something that can come right through no matter where you are -- so long as you have your phone... And let's face it - who doesn't have their phone with them nearly 100% of the time these days?

Mobile marketing can be received in the middle of the night and wake you and your partner up... in the middle of the meeting with your boss asking for a raise... on the way home when you're supposed to be paying attention to the traffic...

Or when you are standing in the supermarket trying to decide which pasta sauce you should buy <-- A requested coupon or receipe idea from a trusted brand right now would be ideal!

Put the campaign on your own personal phone... not the test phone in the lab.

Remember my marketing friends, before you engage in a mobile marketing campaign be sure to ask yourself how you would feel about being a recipeint of your own content. And if you are really brave - sign yourself up for your own marketing communications. Make the experience personal to you so you can see it from your customer's point of view.

If you want the legislative and regulatory bodies to get the standing ovations for applying more and more restrictions on mobile marketing - then throw caution to the wind. But, if you want to get a standing ovation from your customers for your marketing messages be sure you send them make sure the messages are not just clever - make them TRVR! ( That's trev-or )