Mobile Marketing Has To Offer Something Back

Permalink: Mobile Marketing Has To Offer Something Back by Alan Harten

Mobile marketing technology company, Velti, has released the findings of a survey it commissioned that claims that up to 79% of UK consumers consider that the growth of mobile advertising is inevitable.

Over 1,600 people were asked various questions regarding their mobile usage habits.

According to the company the public is beginning to accept that advertising on mobiles will continue to grow. They also indicated that the public want some kind of reward for putting up with this advertising.

Adults polled indicated that they did not like the idea of mobile phones showing adverts to the tune of 80% of respondents.

But of those, 56% said they would tolerate the advertising if they could choose to opt-in to advertising in return for free air time, relevant special offers or even cash.

Half of those taking part said that their preference would be cold, hard, cash in return for adverts appearing on their phones, followed by free air time, free texts or other data being popular with 40% of the respondents.

One bright spark from the advertiser’s point of view is that 22% said that local based advertising in the form of restaurant reviews and similar content would be acceptable in return for a cut in call costs.

It seems that the older the mobile user the less inclined they are to accept any advertising regardless of the rewards.

55% of those over 45 were simply not interested; at the other end of the scale those under 24 polled just 29% opposition to advertising.

The crux of the survey seems to indicate that advertisers will have to give something back if they want people to look at their advertising or they will have to become far more creative to capture an audience.

Velti hold up those baby products people Johnson & Johnson (J&J) as a good example of clever advertising. They asked pregnant women to text their due date to a shortcode.

This allowed J&J to send the mothers-to-be only the most valuable information and offers corresponding to the exact stage of their pregnancy.

The campaign also allowed mothers-to-be to join a mobile community contributing to a support network for pregnant women in their area.

The campaign achieved great success with a massive 94% retention rate over six months, with the expectant mums opting back in on a monthly basis.