Together, Were Beautiful

Kathryn Stevenson, Commercial Director of rich media company PointRoll, considers the synergies that come from integrating mobile marketing and online in a campaign

Kathryn_stevenson_2In todays new media environment, one of the most successful ways to communicate with consumers is by using less traditional mediums such as mobile marketing and online. According to recent research*, 57% of 18 to 34 year olds regularly interact with a company or brand via SMS from their mobile phone and 60% access mobile Internet content. Nearly two thirds of the UK population has broadband and 49% are regular users of the Internet. Statistics like these are hard to ignore. Brand marketers are recognising the increasing importance of both mediums and their effectiveness when integrated in a marketing campaign.
Mobile marketing is fast developing as a powerful channel to communicate with your audience. It not only targets the consumer directly, but also achieves a high level of interaction, as people never leave home without their mobile phones and rarely switch them off. The use of mobile marketing is also considered an effective communication tool for advertisers since it creates a personalised, one to one relationship between a brand and a consumer.

Online is also regarded as a successful method of communicating with your audience. Consumed in a remarkably different way to other media, it echoes the interactive quality of mobile marketing, and offers a far more engaging and interactive experience than television, radio or print advertising.

Powerful connection
Online not only has the potential for creating a powerful connection between advertiser and consumer, but also gives consumers access to data, product knowledge and other customers opinions that inform and drive purchase decisions. This communication, characterised by a two-way dialogue, enables advertisers to gain greater knowledge and understanding of users, and to deliver relevant messages about their products and brands. Due to the measurability of online and mobile, a more accurate targeting of the customer base is achieved. So when online and mobile marketing are used together in a campaign, an extremely powerful marketing tool is created.
A successful example of an integrated online and mobile marketing campaign was ITVs recent promotion of the Supernatural premiere on ITV2. For this campaign, ITVs objective was to promote the programme in a more interactive way. To achieve this, a rich media advert was placed on Yahoo! containing a video trailer for Supernatural and encouraging users to enter their mobile phone numbers to be reminded of the premiere. This action created a text reminder sent directly to the users mobile phone just before the start of the programme. A further enhancement to the campaign was the use of viral marketing, also driven by the rich media ad and enabling users to email a friend about the premiere.  This execution was used as part of a cross-media campaign that also included television and outdoor.

Positive experience
The response was incredible. Users demonstrated a strong interest in the campaign by submitting their contact details for the SMS and email. This method not only validated the users interaction with the ad, but also showed that the campaign had created a positive experience. And to confirm that all data collected would be used responsibly; users were provided with a link to ITVs privacy policy before they submitted their details.
Through this effective integration of mobile marketing and rich media technologies, PointRoll enabled ITV to reach the consumer with more information and engaging online ad formats, without requiring users to leave the original page. The rich media ad allowed online users to obtain all the information they needed, as well as creating a positive and interactive experience for them. As a result, ITV was also able to successfully communicate directly with the consumer to promote its programme, in addition to gathering essential information about its target audience.
The effectiveness of using rich media and mobile marketing technologies is also dependent on the creative.  We must keep in mind that the creative and the idea  must guide the decision as to which technologies make sense to reach our target audience.  Online advertising provides some of the most dynamic new opportunities in terms of creative development since the introduction of television advertising, and offers online advertisers the chance to engage the audience with content in a meaningful way. Rich media not only provides audio-visual capabilities, but also measures the users interaction with both the ads and those audio-visual elements. This measurement enables marketers to understand a users interaction and optimise their creative to continually improve response rates.
When marketers are planning a campaign, they should recognise the potential of mobile marketing and online, considering these mediums as an integral part of the marketing mix. Using mobile and online, particularly rich media, together, will allow brands to continue to push the boundaries and maximise every opportunity to communicate effectively with consumers.

*Research Source: Enpocket Media Monitor UK & Harris Interactive