Definitions: Mobile Marketing and Mobile Advertising Version 0.1

I was recently tasked with coming up with a definition for mobile marketing. Pretty quickly I came to the consulsion that a separate definition for "mobile advertising" would be equally helpful. As I'm active in both the Direct Marketing Association - UK (who gave me the task) and the Mobile Marketing Association - UK where I have been working to help clarify the mission statement, I've actually had quite a bit of input from two sets of industry thought leaders. i,e.; I didn't come up with this all on my own. Nonetheless, it has been a fun process and here is what I’ve come up with. It’s intended to be a version 0.1 definition and I’d welcome your help and comments to make sure it is accurate and helpful.

To start off with I went to the web and looked up some definitions for traditional marketing:

• Marketing: The systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
  
• Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
  
• Direct Marketing: Sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means.
  

- thus -

• Mobile Marketing: The systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products where the primary point of contact with the consumer is via their mobile device.
• Mobile Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers where such communication is delivered to a mobile phone or other mobile device. Examples of mobile advertising would include: WAP Banner ads, mobile search advertising, mobile video bumpers, interstitial ads in on device portals.
• Mobile Direct Marketing: Sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via the potential customer’s mobile phone or other mobile device. Examples of mobile direct marketing include the sending of SMS, MMS or WAP push messages, Bluetooth messaging and other interrupt based marketing to mobile phones or other mobile devices.

By breaking the definition across these lines, a further clarification may be possible offering significant clarity in regards to best practice:

• Mobile Advertising does not require permission.
• Mobile Direct Marketing requires permission.

What about Text-to-Win?

Text-to-win is a “response mechanic” not unlike traditional “bingo cards” or web forms. The consumer is presented with a call-to-action via advertising or some other direct marketing where the action is to send a text message. These campaigns have the unique ability to begin the process of acquiring consumer opt-in permission for future direct mobile marketing in that the consumer inherently offers their mobile phone number as part of the process. (A small caveat here: The French have employed SMS+ whereby all consumers are anonomized to an identifier that is unique to a specific campaign and thus are never actually giving away their mobile number.)

Where does mobile content fit in these definitions?

Ringtones: It all started with ringtones. And then screen savers. And then there were sports scores and stock alerts. Today we have mobile avatars, full-track music downloads, music videos and more. All of this mobile content and it is effectively a product – an accessory or subscription that the mobile-enabled consumer will purchase. Like all products, mobile content must be marketed in order to raise the awareness of the consumer as to the products availability. Marketing of mobile content can be done via traditional advertising, the latest in word-of-mouth-marketing, direct mail, mobile advertising, or mobile direct marketing. Sometimes mobile content can be sponsored offering the content to the consumer at a reduced price or even for free.

Is sponsoring of mobile content mobile direct marketing – or mobile advertising?

Great question – and the answer is: It depends. If the content is being delivered to the consumer via a mobile content company where some promotional content is added – it would fall into the category of mobile advertising. If, on the other hand, the advertiser licenses content to include with a permission-based message to the consumer, that would be mobile direct marketing.

And mobile TV?

Mobile TV – The hype on this is slowing but it was really quite heavy just last month. Mobile TV may include advertising as a way to subsidize the content. Again, as the content is non-personal this would fall into the mobile advertising category. I could go on – but what say we jus keep this simple. A 30 second TV spot is advertising. A 5 second Mobile TV spot is also advertising.

Summary Mobile Direct Marketing vs. Mobile Advertising:

	Mobile Direct Marketing	Mobile Advertising
Specific / Personal	X	O
Permission Required	X	O
SMS, MMS	X	O
WAP Push	X	O
Bluetooth	X	O
WAP Banner Ads	O	X
Mobile TV	O	X
Mobile Search	O	X

So there you have it.

Agree? Disagree? Still confused? Let’s talk about it.