Creatively adding value to mobile
My colleague Mark Logan at bemomobi recently wrote an article about determining mobile marketing principles. In short, he identifies 4 pillars:
- Embrace user control
- Get personal
- Optimize for mobile
- Provide Value
Number 4 is the one of most interest to me, since it is the mobile creative’s task to ensure that any mobile marketing campaign has good value for both the client and the end user. Value for the client’s investment is obvious, but since any campaign will most likely end up costing the end user, either through the sending or receiving of SMS/MMS messages, bandwidth on a data plan, etc., we have to make sure that there’s something coming to them that’s worth their while.
Of Mark’s suggestions, the four that I think are most relevant are:
- Monetary Value
- Location Based Service
- Amusement
- Connection to social network
Monetary value is a given. If you give a coupon code or some other incentive that is in excess of the cost the end user has to incur to participate in your campaign, then you’ve got a good value.
Location Based Services are another way to offer timely, valuable information to an end user. If you can help an end user find your product or service that is nearest to the point that they currently stand, then that’s a huge benefit.
Amusement is also another pretty self explanatory value proposition, yet the one that seems like it will take the most creativity. Hopefully more phones will support Flash Lite in the future so that it will be easier to bring games and other forms of entertainment to mobile devices more easily. One thing’s for sure… we need to get past the “joke of the day” and “nasty licking smiley face” commercials that I see on [adult swim] every night.
I recently signed up for a Facebook account. One of the greatest features to me is the mobile component. I love how I receive messages when people ask to add me to their network and I love even more how I can accept or reject them simply by replying to the text message. That connection is far more valuable to me than Myspace’s web-only offering. I realize that Myspace does have a mobile component, but it seems to me that it’s mostly half baked.
So, the discussion on this can go on for quite some time, and I know that Mark really wants to get some discussion going on this, so feel free to visit his post and leave comments. I’d also love to hear what creative solutions you have for mobile marketing in the comments below.