The next two years will see a boom in mobile marketing, with 89% of major brands planning to market via mobile phones by 2008. Thats the conclusion of an independent survey of 50 of Europes leading brand names commissioned by Airwide Solutions which provides mobile messaging, device management and security solutions to mobile operators, content providers and aggregators.
By 2008, the survey found, 89% of brands will use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audience, with almost one third of those surveyed planning to spend in excess of 10% of marketing budgets on the medium. Within five years, 52% of the brands surveyed expect to be spending between 5% and 25% of their total marketing budget on mobile marketing.
The survey also looked at current usage, and found that 40% of brands have deployed text messaging campaigns, while 18% have deployed multimedia messaging (MMS) campaigns. Growth is still hampered, however, by the lack of supporting information to manage and optimise mobile marketing programs. 55% of brands surveyed said they were unsure how to reach specific target audiences via mobile campaigns, while 58% were unsure how to implement and measure an SMS campaign, and 61% were unsure how to implement and measure an MMS campaign.
When asked what would make mobile marketing more attractive to brands, the key factors were given as the ability to reach a specific target audience; information about how the user responded to a marketing message; and proof that a message had been received by the user's handset. These are all factors addressed by Airwides Airtrends business analysis tool for mobile messaging .
"The widespread acceptance of mobile messaging has created a pervasive and valuable new marketing opportunity for brands which is, in turn, creating a significant revenue opportunity for mobile operators says Airwide Chief Marketing Officer, Jay Seaton. With reliable infrastructure in place and a means to control and measure campaigns, the starting gun will have gone off and it will be a race to create and deliver the most effective mobile marketing initiatives to subscribers who are more receptive than ever."