Mobile Measurement – The right end of the stick?

Mobile Measurement – The right end of the stick?

There are more and more products coming to market offering mobile data measurement across a variety of metrics. Most of these measurement tools fall into one or more of the following broad categories:

• How many consumers are watching, using, accessing mobile data?
• What do we know about these consumers?
• How do these consumers respond to advertising and marketing?

What is the real value behind each of these measurements and who really has the right end of the stick when it comes to mobile measurement?

How Many?

This is where the really crazy numbers and quotes start appearing. Looking at the 2006 Q2 Mobile Telecoms market data tables report from Ofcom – there were some 62.4M mobile subscribers across the 4 major mobile network operators. And from this group there were some 9.74Bn SMS and MMS messages sent. M:Metrics recently announced their MeterDirect product to offer more insight into how and when consumers interact with mobile media. The press release offers such wondrous insights as to the fact that the average UK user spends a whopping 8 minutes of their day surfing the mobile web! ( I wonder, is that because the user experience is so terrible? ) Médiamétrie has also recently announced their creation of the Mobinautes report. ( Note: In French ) You can read with FollowTheMedia.com had to say: (in English) Mobinautes

So all of this will give us an insight into the number of consumers who are part of an addressable market. These numbers are largely used by the Media Buyers and Planners in the Advertising world and it is these really huge numbers that potentially lead to huge deals and contracts – and cash. These people are specifically looking for opportunities to reach consumers with a goal of focusing on customer acquisition and brand extension.

Who are they?

Mobile Enterprise recently made the front cover of Mobile Entertainment promoting their service to offer the profiling of the mobile consumer based on detailed analysis of the types of services each consumer subscribes to. This data is taken from the mobile network operators and allows the operator to offer this valuable insight to the mobile advertiser to ensure a better targeting of their message – and a more effective spend of their mobile advertising budget.

This is a solid proposition for the benefit of both the mobile network operator as well as the advertisers and content owner wishing to reach the mobile consumer. In today’s world of customer profiling a further source of information can add an extra dimension of understanding – and that is worth cash to mobile network operators. (Now, if the operators can just pull their finger out and recognize the opportunity!)

What works?

For me, personally, this is the most interesting bit of mobile measurement, and it is the area that has the greatest potential – and the least focus. It doesn’t matter if you can reach 63M mobile consumers, if you do it with an advertisement that doesn’t generate a response. And it doesn’t matter that you know that 28.3% of them are football fans if you don’t understand how to engage them in a dialogue that goes beyond sport scores and the odd bit of sensationalised pop-news.

In a recent interview with Tim Carrigan CEO of mobile technology company TXT4 I learned of their new product to expand mobile accountability. TXT4 has responded to feedback from a number of their clients to provide a universal reporting mechanism that can show the effectiveness of a marketing campaign across multiple response channels. More than just watching for a blip in sales after a marketing campaign – actually measuring the timing and volume of responses to an add across mobile, telephone and other consumer response mechanisms.

Tim explains, “Mobile response data provides far more accurate, quantitative insights than those gained from traditional methods such as focus groups and statistical analysis. As consumers increasingly choose to respond to advertising by text and use the mobile internet, the focus brands are giving to the data has grown.”

TXT4 is providing its clients with accurate response data, that provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of their above the line activity. By tracking every response, clients can extract a range of findings from exact volumes of response generated by each ad placement to information on consumer behavior such as peak response patterns. It’s this analysis which provides real-time, powerful measurement tools for marketers to assess their return on investment.

Conclusion

We live in very interesting times in which there is ever more data being presented to us. Mobile as a media channel, marketing channel, consumer response mechanic and advertising channel is growing rapidly and the more companies and agencies provide measurement, the more press releases and announcement we see trumpeting the burgeoning success of mobile. I guess the point is that we shouldn't worry so much about whether or not we have the right end of the stick as that we should make sure that we grab one and start making meaningful measurements of our own!