subject: Innovation in Mobile Marketing [print this page] Innovation in Mobile Marketing Innovation in Mobile Marketing
Long gone are the days when selecting a mobile phone was simply based upon making calls and sending simple text messages. The majority of mobile phones now have built in cameras, MP3 players, internet and email services, and dozens of applications all of which seem to be standard practice for the everyday phone. Mobile technology has evolved incredibly over the last few years and now consumers are spoilt for choice with different makes, models, features and applications to choose from and yet more and more new features and technologies are launched all the time.
Every year seems to herald the "year of the mobile", and we have uncovered four of the most innovative mobile technologies we have seen so far in 2010.
Bluetooth Enabled Advertising Campaign
Earlier this year saw one of the first Bluetooth enabled advertising campaigns trialed by Burger King at Luton Airport. The campaign was created to advertise a 15% off promotion that would attract more customers to the Luton branch. A six-sheet billboard situated in the check-in hall was used to ping the offer to mobile phones with an estimate of 20,000 contacts with passing people and approximately 2265 people actually downloading the offer. This campaign resulted in an amazing 10% success rate.
Read the article here
Barcode Scanning Applications
Firstly Tesco amazed us with their Clubcard App, which enables consumers to download their Clubcard onto their iPhone, Ovi or Blackberry. The application allows customers to use their Clubcard in store by forming a barcode on the mobile screen that can be scanned in place of the previous physical card. The Tesco Clubcard App enables customers to manage their Clubcard points and ensures that your Clubcard will never be left at home again. To date this application has had around half a million downloads since its launch last year.
Only a few months later Tesco announced the launch of their new app. The Store and Product finder App offers customers a barcode scanning feature that locates their nearest store and can check whether the product they are scanning is in stock. This app allows searched for products to be added to shopping lists and for customers to create, save and amend current shopping lists.
Find out more about the newest Tesco Apps
Mobile Banking
Lloyds TSB were the first bank in the UK to enable its customers to manage their bank accounts using mobile phones back in October 2008. The downloadable software enabled customers to view their balance and manage their Lloyds accounts by transferring money between them.
New functionality was later added to the application. Now customers can have a package that includes text alerts and mobile banking features such as viewing your balance, transferring money between accounts, viewing a statement of the last six transactions made and the ability to top up your pay as you go mobile straight from your bank. Customers pay 2.50 per month for this text alert and mobile banking features package.
The majority of High Street banks now offer mobile banking packages, such as HSBC, Barclays and NatWest whose customers can cash cheques, pay bills and access forms as well as being able to view their balance and transfer funds.
The Mobile Marketing Association released mobile banking statistics in February this year showing that 14% of UK mobile consumers currently use mobile banking with 23% confident that they will use mobile banking in the next 12 months.
Location Based Services
Location Based Applications offer a service that can identify the location of a person, place or object. These apps can help you to find places of interest on the go as well as staying in touch with friends.
One of the most popular LBS Apps is foursquare. It works by checking in' on your location using a GPS system, sharing your location with others. This enables you to find your friends by viewing their location on your foursquare application. Users can check in at any location such as bars, restaurants, museums and even on public transport, earning points and unlocking badges the more times they check-in' to a particular location. The user can be crowned mayor of their favourite location if they have checked-in' there more times than any other user
Foursquare and other similar location based applications provide businesses with a good source of feedback, which they gain from tips and recommendations that users share with each other. Businesses can use this application as an opportunity to offer incentives to their customers by offering rewards and special offers to those who check-in' at their location on a regular basis. It also enables businesses to target consumers, whilst they are in store. Dominos pizza recently rewarded the mayor of each outlet with free pizzas and regular users with free side dishes on orders over 10. Other companies who have lined up to engage with this service include Debenhams, McDonalds and Vodafone.
Introduction to Foursquare
Mobile technology continues to evolve providing consumers with an exciting range of features and applications to engage with. Companies and brands are investing more money into mobile advertising and technology with research showing that mobile advertising spends will go up by as much as 150% by 2013. With companies ready to invest more money into mobile this year and consumers saying they will be confidently using more mobile technology we can safely say that 2010 is going to be a big year for mobile. The question is where will the future of mobile technology take us?
