The Third Generation - Mobile Marketing to the masses

I'm going to get straight to the point - Take mobile marketing seriously NOW. The mighty mobile has shown it has moved on from the early days of 'WAP Crap' and placed itself in pole position as the gadget of choice for consumer interaction. Ring tones, desktop wallpapers and photos of your mates aside - what are the opportunities for business? Well for starters, reverse charging systems (Text / MMS ACME to 1234 at 50p per message) can be used to 'pull' information about your products and services on demand; creating an additional revenue stream through operator commissions in the process. The widespread roll out of 3G means more and more people will be able to access high speed internet - making anywhere the point of decision/sale. Brands owners are hard at work thinking up new ways to connect with people on the move, 24/7 and the tone is thankfully shifting from aggressive sales tactics, to creative and user focused services. As consumers we are all demanding more personalised service and more accessible information. Brand loyalty can no longer be taken for granted; it has to be earned and rewarded through close two-way interaction. Those businesses who innovate and create value add services using the current and emerging channels will no doubt flourish. Starting your mobile marketing strategy doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. How about producing a simple infomercial about a new service that you seed to your current clients? Or maybe making their account information available to their mobiles? If you want to see how powerful and effective mobiles can be - try running a mobile-only special offer that further incentivises a recipient to forward it on to a friend - creating a 'viral effect'. Not only can this spread like wildfire, it allows the recipient to choose what suppliers to trust and refer to their inner-circle of contacts. Permission Marketing at it's most effective! By starting to create points of interaction that get your audience thinking about you more often, you'll be planting a seed that will form the roots of your business in the months and years to come. Exciting times indeed. You can talk to the team at Persona Creative if you have an idea for mobile marketing and need to develop and deliver it, or if you need help identifying one in the first place.