Views and perspectives from the recent MMA Forum in London

A guest post by Emmanuel Legros (twitter), Gemalto

This year’s Mobile Marketing Association Forum held in London was the usual hotbed of discussion around current and evolving market trends. As a member of the MMA, I both attended and presented at the event, speaking in a track session on ‘Doing More’, alongside Nokia, Eagle Eye Solutions, O2 and InMobi, hosted by Jonathan Kelly from Vodafone.

The presentation given by Babs Rangaih from Unilever was one I found particularly compelling. Outlining Unilever’s Mobile Manifesto, including the fact that the FMCG company has further committed to Apple iAd campaigns, as reported Ronan Shields and others, Unilever’s VP of global communications planning made some really intriguing points, including:

· No one is doing a great job in social media yet, which means there’s still an opportunity here

· It’s just the beginning for us and those in our industry, and we can all continue to learn and adapt.

· Mobile is a priority channel – if you lose your wallet, it may take you a day or a few hours to realize it. If you lose your mobile, you notice immediately.

Ultimately, his key message was that mobile marketing needs to be kept simple. It can bring great benefits or utility for consumers, for example through the delivery of mobile coupons.

Attila Weisz, digital marketing manager – IMC, at The Coca-Cola Company, raised a good point in his presentation too, talking about “mobile 3.0”. Even with all the development we’ve seen on mobile platforms, however, SMS still reigns supreme as a mobile marketing medium. Tens of millions of consumers out there haven’t made the leap to a smartphone platform yet.

It was interesting to hear how more and more big companies and corporations are investing in mobile. One major brand claimed it spent 70% of its time on above the line campaigns, 10% on innovation and 20% on mobile! If more companies adopted this investment in mobile, we would be significantly further down the line!

A third presentation that stood out was from the VP of digital products for The Weather Channel – Scott Jensen. In his eyes, mobile needs to be relevant – the keywords here are personal, local and social. Mobile marketing can only ever work if it offers the right message with the right content to the right person at the right time.

Which takes me on to my final thought which flowed through the entire conference, which is that permission-based marketing is the key to success. What marketers, who are embracing the mobile channel, need to be mindful of is that privacy and obtaining permission from consumers is what will determine whether their campaigns are successful or not. Access to this personal information is vital to creating that personalised experience, and consumers need to give you their permission to have that access. Also to note that permission is only granted on a temporary basis and has to be updated over time. People change so permission given once is not permission given forever.

It’s not all bad news though – those who manage to obtain permission stand to make headway with their target audiences. Gemalto has supported a Mobile Marketing Association whitepaper on Permission-Based Marketing (free pdf once you’ve filled in a short request form) which provides further guidance, case study examples and success stories. Worth a read if you want to learn more.

Did you miss the mobile marketing forum?

I didn't make it to this year's MMA London mobile marketing forum for the conference, but I did manage to say hello to pals and colleagues in the evening courtesy of Admob. It sounds like it was an interesting day and worth going to. So, if like me, you missed it, then you can read all about the 'What Agencies Want panel session' here. It's well worth a read if you're an agency, working with an agency or want to work with agencies.

Via mobhappy.

Mobile Marketing Best Practice guide is out

Highlights to the July 2007 Guidelines include:

• Marketing to Children: define the guidelines for marketing to children under the age of 13.
• IVR: provide guidance on opt-in and opt-out via IVR (interactive voice response).
• Mobile Web: ensure opt-ins are also adhered to with each mobile web experience. The Guidelines specify the use of a PIN or phone MO message to confirm the authorized subscriber.
• Dispute Resolution: defines that dispute resolution is at the discretion of each carrier for their respective customers.

The mobile marketing best practice guidelines are available in pdf format from the MMA global website. You'll find other useful reports and papers available to download from the site too, and they're all free.

Meanwhile in the UK, ICSTIS is having its say on mobile marketing too.

"ICSTIS's proposals on third marketing lists have been received with cautious encouragement by industry members attending a meeting last week.

ICSTIS is proposing that:

1) In the subject/title of WAP Pushes, to have within it details of the short code in question. This is no different to existing requirements for promotional SMS messages.

2) In the subject/title of WAP Pushes, to have within it details of the fact that it's a "FreeMsg". This again is no different to existing requirements for promotional SMS messages.

Some networks already have a rule for the time after which you cannot send users promotional messages - which is set to 6 months, so as to ensure that if a SIM is recycled, the new owner doesn't get the previous owner's promotional messages."

Either way, common sense applies. And the old adage, "Do as you would be done by" certainly holds true with mobile marketing regardless of any legal requirements.

Mobile Advertising Guidelines published

If you're reading this blog, then the chances are that you have some kind of interest in mobile advertising. In which case, it's worth checking out the Mobile Marketing Asssociation's Mobile Advertising Guidelines document (pdf). It's US focussed but most of the rules apply over here in the UK and Europe. There are tips there about the different type of banner or click through campaigns you can do and some examples of how you might use them so well worth a look.

I've been using mobile advertising successfully for some of my clients in the last 6 months or so and I've been impressed with the results and conversion rates. Why not try it for yourself here with Admob who are one of the largest mobile advertising firms.

And finally, if you're after some new case studies to check out, then it's worth you have a look at the 2006 MMA Annual Mobile Marketing Guide in Association with Advertising Age (pdf). It was published in December 2006 so the information is still recent enough and it covers case studies from across the world, not just the USA.