According to a Globe and Mail article on Smartphone users in Canada, about 45 per cent of Canada’s wireless subscribers use smartphones. Rogers, Bell and Telus have seen roughly a 10 per cent decrease in voice minutes. Users are migrating from using their mouths to using their fingers to communicate. Public relations and communications professionals need to meet them there, which makes mobile marketing an important aspect to future campaigns.
Mobile Marketing
The term mobile marketing is used as an umbrella term to cover all the aspects of delivering or receiving information with your target audience through a mobile device.
The Mobile Marketing Association defines it as:
Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.
Communicating in an “interactive manner” can be through:
- QR Codes
- Mobile apps
- SMS and MMS messaging (or text messaging)
- Location based services (such as GPS)
- In-game marketing
- Mobile web/advertising
Case studies
- Route 66 Harley-Davidson Revs Up with SMS Promotion: Read up how a Harley-Davidson dealership increased sales through their 12 days of Christmas mobile campaign.
- JC Penney QR Codes Let You Add Voice Message to Gifts: JC Penney decided to put a spin on QR Codes. J.C. Penney shoppers received a “Santa Tag” sticker with each purchase during the holiday season. The tags contain individualized QR codes that can be scanned with any QR code reader to record a personalized voice message. Gift recipients can, in turn, scan the codes to hear the recorded voice message when they open their gifts.
- Fiat’s Street Evo iPhone App: To promote the new Fiat Punto Evo to a tech savy target market Fiat came up with a mobile app that treats road signs like QR Codes. Scanning signs would give users more information about features of the new Fiat. However, Fiat knew the tech savy audience wouldn’t want to just read a catalogue, so they hid prizes in certain traffic signs. Week one of the campaign saw over one million hits.
More case studies of great mobile marketing can be found in this list of 2011 Winners of the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards.