Mobile Marketing - a one legged stool?

The thing that most agencies don't understand about mobile marketing is that it is about as useful as a one legged stool unless it is included as part of a much broader multi-channel marketing campaign. I've written before about the fact that mobile is not a strategy, it's a channel, but seems like it is worth mentioning again.

Michael Nutley, in this weeks New Media Age (23.02.06) talks about how NeoMedia Technologies has been on a buying spree with a vision of becoming a 'mobile marketing supercompany'. NeoMedia has recently purchased 12snap, Mobot, HipCricket and recently Sponge. Each of these companies are good solid companies with unique technology but they are only as good as the traditional marketing that is used to reach the consumer and to make the consumer aware that these unique mobile services exist.

Michael points out that there is a, "growing trend for agencies from other media to claim that there's nothing about mobile that requires specialist practitioners to make it work." I think that statement bears a bit of examination because in some ways I agree - and in others I don't.

Is it rocket science?

Mobile marketing is seen by most agencies as something as simple as sending and receiving a text message. It's not rocket science. And in that specific instance they are right. But I don't think that this is why agencies are saying that mobile is simple. Agencies are positioning mobile this way because they are losing some of the available budget to the mobile marketing companies delivering on the campaigns.

Companies like Enpocket, 12Snap and Flytxt figured out pretty quickly that the message delivery business was going to turn into commodity and the margins were going to get thin, so they set themselves up as boutique design agencies to deliver mobile marketing campaigns with added complexity - and that meant consultancy. And every bit of the budget going to a Flytxt, meant that it wasn't going to the primary agency - and as you might guess this ruffled some feathers.

In the first instance the response from the agencies was to dis mobile marketing entirely as something that was unproven and scary and something that the brands should approach with caution. Now that they can no longer keep mobile out of the mix, they are going for the approach that "it's simple" - and that you really don't need a specialist to do it.

Michael rightly points out that sometimes this means that the mobile aspect to a campaign is done internally - and in other cases it is quietly outsourced. In any case it is a setup to what my colleague Jim Brooks has been saying for the last couple of years: "Agencies will wind up buying the talent and/or the companies that know mobile and integrating them into their offering." The result will be that mobile banner ads, mobile text messages and other mobile content will be bought and sold by the media agencies in the same way that 30 second television spots and print column inches are bought and sold today.

To understand mobile is to incorporate mobile

I think this is a good trend and as far as I'm concerned it can't happen fast enough! Once the agencies swallow the pill (the mobile marketing pill that is) they will finally realize that the only way to use mobile is as part of a multi-channel mobile marketing strategy. It can be a consumer response mechanic - or a consumer reward mechanic - or it can be a CRM tool. But before it (mobile) can be any of these, every single piece of traditional marketing must include a "mobile- call-to-action." (MCA) - No MCA - No mobile.

This is easily understood when you look at SMS marketing and the idea of a text-to-win campaign. But what other types of MCA would you need? Well - you'll need to promote your mobile URL to your customers. You can do that via a WAP Push (sent in response to an SMS) or you can include it in your print media. You can include it in your mobile search marketing and your Internet search marketing. For Bluetooth you need to invite consumers to download the Bluetooth applications onto their phones and/or to pair up with Bluetooth based mobile marketing servers. I think you get the idea. Mobile is available, but you must use traditional media to reach the consumer and invite them - entice them - incent them - to take action from their mobile.

Ok - ok - you can do a push campaign - but why?

Some marketers are still a bit thick - well - maybe not so thick as much as just plain lazy. They only know one thing and that is how to buy a list and blast a bunch of marketing to the list. They don't care if it's door drop, telemarketing, mail shots or bulk SMS - they just want to send out a shed load of crap --- and almost never do they actually look at what type of responses they are getting and what kind of ROI they get from their efforts (because if they did they would be terrified of losing their accounts!) The point is this: Bulk direct mobile marketing (bulk SMS messages) is costly and ineffective unless it's part of a multi-channel marketing strategy.

Balance and support...

Just like a stool with only one leg provides only limited support and balance, mobile on it's own will provide only limited effectiveness. If, instead, you make one leg mobile, one leg traditional marketing and one leg CRM - then you have a well balanced solution that will bring value to your customers and your best return on the marketing investment.