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Alistair Wright is managing partner of marketing consultancy Torque, which works with major Australian brands to help them view – and manage – their customers as a business asset.

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Vital statistics

  • 45 percent of handsets are video capable (just as many as take true tones)
  • 70 percent of total handsets in Australia can send and receive MMS
  • camera phones outsold digital cameras in 2004 by a factor of nearly four to one
  • The camera is the third most used function of mobile phones after voice and SMS, and
  • 100 million MMS messages were sent globally in 2005 (a figure that is set for double digit growth by 2008).

Source: ‘Tiger Droppings’ newsletter (September 2006) produced by TigerSpike

SMS has finally found itself a firm foothold in the mobile marketing landscape, but are consumers ready for what’s beyond?

At the IAB Engage conference in London last year, global Yahoo! chief Terry Semel forecast that by 2010 most people accessing the internet will not use a PC but a mobile phone. A bold prediction? Perhaps. But there’s no doubt a whole new world of potential is starting to open up in this space. The challenge for marketers now is to find the key to unlock it.

With mobile handset capabilities steadily on the rise and the continued roll-out of high-speed networks, distributing rich media content via the mobile is becoming a more viable proposition for marketers. Combine this with the intimately personal and targeted nature of the medium and you have a pretty powerful marketing tool, quite literally, in the palm of your hands. Or – more importantly – your consumers’ hands.

While there are no precise industry figures on how many people now carry mobile phones with multimedia capabilities, a recent study conducted by Ericsson indicated that 60 percent of respondents have mobile phones with camera function, 56 percent have MMS service capability and 25 percent have mobile TV service capability. Also, in the latest Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index, carried out during November 2006, 30 percent of respondents said that their phone was 3G, up from 11 percent the previous year.

While all the vital signs are pointing in the right direction, 3G-enabled handsets are a little way off becoming mainstream. “As this is a fairly new concept, which has not yet fully flourished, the more interactive and integrated campaigns may not experience a huge boost as yet,” says Dimitri Tsitsikas, director of promotions, Messagemedia. “Features like MMS and ring tones are definitely being integrated into mobile marketing campaigns, but as this is currently only limited to users with compatible handsets we will probably have to wait a year or two before we see such campaigns achieve their full potential.”

Although optimistic about the potential of multimedia campaigns, Cameron Franks, regional director of Sybase365, advises marketers not to completely abandon the tried and true. “SMS should remain the basis of the application because of its ubiquity and comprehension by all. Marketers should, however, be looking at richer media applications for those users able to access them to enhance the experience.”

Unlike SMS, where you are limited to 160 black and white characters, rich media opens up a whole raft of ways to engage with consumers – from picture messages to video, audio, email, games and even web-based content. Where the real gold lies with rich media, though, is its ability to encourage the user to actively interact with the brand. “The right creative idea can empower handset users to participate, whether it’s downloading or activating Bluetooth to receive content or uploading media to get involved,” says Ben Cooper, interactive strategist for Host.

As mobile is an opt-in medium, the challenge is to provide something that is genuinely of value to consumers. “The content offered must be relevant,” advises Claire Gunn, director, Breeze Tech. “While Bluetooth technology can enable brands to deliver a vast range of content to consumers’ mobile phones, the content has to be attractive to the consumer in the first place; otherwise there is no incentive to interact.”

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