Since the beginning of the recession advertising spends have continually decreased causing increased unemployment and in some cases business closure.
More positively Hartmut Ostrowski, CEO Bertlesmann, said "our thrid quarter business performance was gratifying, particularly in terms of economic crisis... were on the right path".
The dip is showing signs of evening out and there might even be an upturn in the recent future.
Reference: European advertising markets start to revive
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Monday, 9 November 2009
The Guardian hails SMS king!
Regardless of other mobile device enhancements and developments such as apps and mobile internet SMS is still on top says the guardian.
Last year 78.9 billion SMS messages were sent compared to a mere 56.9 in 2007. Steve Ricketts says that although the SMS technology hasn't changed much the way businesses are using it has.
Brands are using shortcodes, 5 digit phone number, to encourage interaction and awareness. Some businesses are even making a huge revenue by building profiles through their SMS service and promoting third party products to a targeted audience. The SMS innovators are advertising a shortcode and in some cases a keyword using promotional methods such as billboards, web and leaflets.
It is now even possible to charge people through SMS for example lowest unique bid auctions, chat services and small charity donations. Visit the Guardians site to learn more.
Last year 78.9 billion SMS messages were sent compared to a mere 56.9 in 2007. Steve Ricketts says that although the SMS technology hasn't changed much the way businesses are using it has.
Brands are using shortcodes, 5 digit phone number, to encourage interaction and awareness. Some businesses are even making a huge revenue by building profiles through their SMS service and promoting third party products to a targeted audience. The SMS innovators are advertising a shortcode and in some cases a keyword using promotional methods such as billboards, web and leaflets.
It is now even possible to charge people through SMS for example lowest unique bid auctions, chat services and small charity donations. Visit the Guardians site to learn more.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
SMS Mobile marketing explained
Mobile marketing has become yet another buzz word in the 21st century for marketers, sales people and technical specialists. It covers a vast spectrum of techniques to leverage mobile phone handsets and devices for promotions, advertising and brand identity.
This blog will cover the original mobile marketing approach - SMS. Many of the larger organisations of this world have realised that SMS is an essential part of their marketing mix but strangely a lot of smaller companies are either avoiding SMS or not realising its full potential. I will attempt to tell you how people might use SMS to increase brand attention, improve customers services and ultimately increase revenue.
The definition of SMS mobile marketing
SMS mobile marketing is the sending and/or receiving of SMS messages. People often group SMS marketing strategies into one of two categories, one way and two way SMS. One way is the process of sending or receiving an SMS message. Two way SMS is a more complex message flow, for example they might text you with a keyword that in turn enters them into a campaign to win a prize and let them know at a scheduled date if they have won via SMS.
Spam or an art?
People often think their text messages should be promotional or offer discounts with a WAP link, this is a very one dimensional approach to success. Consider your recipients, do they want to know about your new brand or offer? Are they inundated with irrelevant messages, emails, phone calls and door knockers? Marketing is not spam, it is the alignment of the customer with a brand. The gentle art of introducing a target audience to a brand can take time and requires careful strategy.
How to use SMS
I have been fortunate enough in my career to work with some incredible innovators and mobile marketing giants. One thing they always talked about was the monetisation of demographics. SMS can automatically and accurately build a profile of thousands of users within a short time.
One customer who is profiling right now is Future publishing. I am sure you have seen columns like "Text EDITOR to 87474" or "Tell us about your favourite gig of 2009, text GIG to 87474", this is one way Future encourage inbound messages from their readers. As the message comes in it gets profiled under the current and any previous campaigns, their answer and any personal information is stored against their number. All of this remains in the system and so long as they do not opt out or become blacklisted.
Once you have a number of profiled users you can promote products directly to their phone. At a recent conference Future talked about one such campaign for the Nintendo Wii. More than 16000 people entered a competition to win the latest Mario game and continued answering profiling questions on age, interests and location. Only 1% opted out from the service when they were asked if they wanted to receive promotional Nintendo SMS messages. The high street retailers jumped at the chance to pay for promotional SMS messages to reach this targeted audience with age and location appropriate viral content. For example "Did you know most young people aged 17 are buying Wii Sports Resort right now, join them at your local Game store in Stourbridge town." The ROI per text was high and Game sales increased with positive on-line feedback.
Future are experts at delivering content to their audience, they realised that in 2009 you have to monetise your content to maximise revenue. Retailers use mobile questionnaires to understand the wants and needs of their customers, using this feedback they can deliver more effective point of sale promotions and train their staff.
What can you do?
In laymen's terms you need to build a strategy based on your customers behaviour and your competitors weaknesses and fully commit to your marketing campaign. Firstly people need to opt in to the service, so set up SMS competitions, SMS subscriptions, SMS votes, an SMS support channel or mobile phone capture forms on your website. Build an extensive list of relevant subscribers and do not be afraid to remove irrelevant contacts. Once you feel you have a relevant and sizeable group compose a message with dynamic fields personal to each individual. When sending your messages make sure you set the interface to stagger the messages over a standard working day, this will give you a an impression of the ideal send time for future campaigns.
Other uses for SMS include charity auctions, third world targeted aid, SMS vouchers, loyalty campaigns, "Text the DJ", long messages, WAP push and MMS. If you want to discuss a potential SMS marketing strategy visit our SMS mobile marketing website.
This blog will cover the original mobile marketing approach - SMS. Many of the larger organisations of this world have realised that SMS is an essential part of their marketing mix but strangely a lot of smaller companies are either avoiding SMS or not realising its full potential. I will attempt to tell you how people might use SMS to increase brand attention, improve customers services and ultimately increase revenue.
The definition of SMS mobile marketing
SMS mobile marketing is the sending and/or receiving of SMS messages. People often group SMS marketing strategies into one of two categories, one way and two way SMS. One way is the process of sending or receiving an SMS message. Two way SMS is a more complex message flow, for example they might text you with a keyword that in turn enters them into a campaign to win a prize and let them know at a scheduled date if they have won via SMS.
Spam or an art?
People often think their text messages should be promotional or offer discounts with a WAP link, this is a very one dimensional approach to success. Consider your recipients, do they want to know about your new brand or offer? Are they inundated with irrelevant messages, emails, phone calls and door knockers? Marketing is not spam, it is the alignment of the customer with a brand. The gentle art of introducing a target audience to a brand can take time and requires careful strategy.
How to use SMS
I have been fortunate enough in my career to work with some incredible innovators and mobile marketing giants. One thing they always talked about was the monetisation of demographics. SMS can automatically and accurately build a profile of thousands of users within a short time.
One customer who is profiling right now is Future publishing. I am sure you have seen columns like "Text EDITOR to 87474" or "Tell us about your favourite gig of 2009, text GIG to 87474", this is one way Future encourage inbound messages from their readers. As the message comes in it gets profiled under the current and any previous campaigns, their answer and any personal information is stored against their number. All of this remains in the system and so long as they do not opt out or become blacklisted.
Once you have a number of profiled users you can promote products directly to their phone. At a recent conference Future talked about one such campaign for the Nintendo Wii. More than 16000 people entered a competition to win the latest Mario game and continued answering profiling questions on age, interests and location. Only 1% opted out from the service when they were asked if they wanted to receive promotional Nintendo SMS messages. The high street retailers jumped at the chance to pay for promotional SMS messages to reach this targeted audience with age and location appropriate viral content. For example "Did you know most young people aged 17 are buying Wii Sports Resort right now, join them at your local Game store in Stourbridge town." The ROI per text was high and Game sales increased with positive on-line feedback.
Future are experts at delivering content to their audience, they realised that in 2009 you have to monetise your content to maximise revenue. Retailers use mobile questionnaires to understand the wants and needs of their customers, using this feedback they can deliver more effective point of sale promotions and train their staff.
What can you do?
In laymen's terms you need to build a strategy based on your customers behaviour and your competitors weaknesses and fully commit to your marketing campaign. Firstly people need to opt in to the service, so set up SMS competitions, SMS subscriptions, SMS votes, an SMS support channel or mobile phone capture forms on your website. Build an extensive list of relevant subscribers and do not be afraid to remove irrelevant contacts. Once you feel you have a relevant and sizeable group compose a message with dynamic fields personal to each individual. When sending your messages make sure you set the interface to stagger the messages over a standard working day, this will give you a an impression of the ideal send time for future campaigns.
Other uses for SMS include charity auctions, third world targeted aid, SMS vouchers, loyalty campaigns, "Text the DJ", long messages, WAP push and MMS. If you want to discuss a potential SMS marketing strategy visit our SMS mobile marketing website.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Global Consumer Confidence Index rise
The Global Consumer Confidence Index (GCCI) has risen from 77 to 86 points, that's a 12% rise over 2 months. The survey of 30,500 worldwide consumers and the various statistics and algorithms show trends in consumer confidence which in turn could indicate the recessions recovery.
45 out of 52 markets are displaying signs of increased optimism compared to last year which is great news for global economies. Once the money begins to flow again it could lead to lower inflation and unemployment.
Geographically speaking the most confident consumers reside within India and Indonesia, the least confident in Latvia and Japan. European success stories include France with a GCCI increase of 7 points and Germany with an increase of 5.
Of those surveyed a year ago who claimed they were in recession 26% are now saying their situation is much improved. Although we are only starting to see signs of recovery some businesses are already experiencing a marked improvement.
Global economies are shifting from recession to recovery, we need to support our local businesses and continue promoting our products. If global consumers loose confidence in markets then the recession could go on for a lot longer.
45 out of 52 markets are displaying signs of increased optimism compared to last year which is great news for global economies. Once the money begins to flow again it could lead to lower inflation and unemployment.
Geographically speaking the most confident consumers reside within India and Indonesia, the least confident in Latvia and Japan. European success stories include France with a GCCI increase of 7 points and Germany with an increase of 5.
Of those surveyed a year ago who claimed they were in recession 26% are now saying their situation is much improved. Although we are only starting to see signs of recovery some businesses are already experiencing a marked improvement.
Global economies are shifting from recession to recovery, we need to support our local businesses and continue promoting our products. If global consumers loose confidence in markets then the recession could go on for a lot longer.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Mobile connects brands with customers
HipCricket are a US based mobile marketing solutions provider who recently published a survey based on their 45,000+ SMS campaigns and profiling exercises. Interestingly 37% of consumers were willing to take part in a loyalty scheme which indicates the interest in incentives through mobile. UK mobile marketers The Text Works also confirmed that the customers that did take the initiative to set up worthwhile loyalty rewards were getting a great SMS response.
It never ceases to amaze me how open people are to SMS based promotions, HipCricket's results were even more amazing- they found that over 83% of users said they would like to hear about their favourite brands through SMS. In 2009 it seems people want content to find them, and SMS it seems is the best route to deliver that content.
As many UK marketers will tell you one of the difficult things when promoting through media is getting the call to action noticed. HipCricket claimed that 94% of their users remember call to actions from mobile campaigns. Imagine developing a viral SMS message and delivering it to users who WANT to read about your promotions, its cheaper to send to less people and the conversion rate would be a lot higher.
In short spend more time on your strategies and profiling. Listen to your consumers through social media and SMS campaigns. Develop a greater understanding of their ideal content and deliver it to them.
It never ceases to amaze me how open people are to SMS based promotions, HipCricket's results were even more amazing- they found that over 83% of users said they would like to hear about their favourite brands through SMS. In 2009 it seems people want content to find them, and SMS it seems is the best route to deliver that content.
As many UK marketers will tell you one of the difficult things when promoting through media is getting the call to action noticed. HipCricket claimed that 94% of their users remember call to actions from mobile campaigns. Imagine developing a viral SMS message and delivering it to users who WANT to read about your promotions, its cheaper to send to less people and the conversion rate would be a lot higher.
In short spend more time on your strategies and profiling. Listen to your consumers through social media and SMS campaigns. Develop a greater understanding of their ideal content and deliver it to them.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Cutting marketing budgets will weaken long term brands
All of us are feeling the pinch in our business and personal during the trough of the recession, food costs are up employment is down and it seems businesses are neglecting their long term interests such as marketing and branding exercises.
The IPA report on 'Advertising in a downturn' clearly states that businesses are cutting marketing costs in favour of short term savings. This could prove to be a substantial error. Competition in 2009 is stronger than ever and saving money makes sense, but not reminding people how important your brand is to their working or personal life could reduce their contribution. Conversely a competitor might take the opportunity to engage with your existing or potential customers.
It is important that you maintain your bread and butter marketing and take the opportunity to trial other marketing techniques, who knows maybe you could be taking a slice of pie from another competitor.
Something I have worked with and would recommend is mobile marketing and SMS advertising. The Text Works are renowned for their customer service, marketing advice and live demonstrations even before you are a customer. SMS is a great way of reaching people. The open rate is higher, its cheaper than other more traditional marketing and you can build surprisingly accurate demographics for targeted promotions or even promote third party products for a tidy profit. Take a look at their marketing case studies for more information.
Other methods can be used to drive brand attention foe example social media can be great for branding and promotions. I look forward to your comments and questions and wish all of you the best of luck in these trying times.
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