One size doesn't fit all: A guide to mobile platforms for marketing

Brands and agencies recognize and agree that the mobile channel is a highly effective way to reach consumers. But the most successful campaigns are built on the understanding that the mobile channel isn't homogeneous. Instead, savvy brands and marketers know that it's actually a set of options, each with its own strengths and considerations that must be factored in to ensure a maximally effective campaign.

Take Short Message Service (SMS), which is the world's most widely used wireless data service partly because it's been built into virtually every handset--even entry-level models--sold over the past several years. As a result, there's an enormous installed base of SMS users, across every demographic group, for brands and marketers to target.

This installed base can be measured in terms of usage. For example, in America, the average mobile user sends 10 SMS messages per day per customer, according to CTIA. In the Philippines, it's nearly 400 messages per month, according to a January 2009 Pyramid Research report. The takeaway: SMS is widely used in both developed and developing countries, so it's a viable way for brands and marketers to reach the mass market.

But SMS also has its share of limitations. For example, developing and executing an SMS-based campaign takes time: typically around three months to obtain a short code and receive approval from the carriers that will be involved. By comparison, a campaign centered on a mobile application often can be developed and executed faster, sometimes in a matter of weeks.

Those are just two examples, but they highlight some of the factors that brands and marketers need to consider when deciding how to use the mobile channel. Meanwhile, success often means using multiple methods, such as a mix of SMS, mobile banner ads and smartphone applications. That's why creating an effective campaign also requires understanding how each method complements the others, as well as how each method fits in with a campaign's other, non-wireless components, such as print, broadcast and digital signage.

Short messages, long reach

For mobile campaigns, SMS' greatest strengths include near-ubiquity, wide consumer awareness and ease of use. SMS frequently is used to increase the effectiveness of campaigns that include non-mobile channels.

For example, many billboard, print, digital signage and TV ads now include a short code as a call to action. That increases the campaign's effectiveness by making it easy for consumers to get more information immediately, instead of hoping that they'll remember the ad the next time they're in front of a computer...Continued

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