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Mobile advertising is a priority: MMF carrier panel

NEW YORK - Is mobile advertising becoming more of a priority for wireless carriers? Signs point to yes.

While the wireless carrier business model is built on the foundation of consumer subscription services, with the rise of mobile advertising and marketing, a new kind of customer has appeared -- advertisers. This panel at the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum talked about how carriers are evolving into media companies, serving the needs of marketers to connect to consumers on the go.

"There is a misconception that the carriers can be barriers to mobile advertising, but we're all playing in same ecosystem and we're following MMA guidelines and ensuring consumer privacy," said Roshni Cox, group manager of email and mobile marketing for Sprint.

"We have the relationship with customers for data and billing, and we are open to advertisers and brands, but it's about understanding objectives and making sure it's the right thing for the customers," she said.

As an example, Ms. Cox discussed Sprint's partnership with NASCAR, which has implemented location-based text messaging campaigns, SMS coupons, in-venue text-to-screen, MMS, IVR and a mobile application.

"With our evaluation of the marketplace, we're seeing how we're progressing so fast, with multiple mobile components happening," Ms. Cox said. "With NASCAR, we're using all of the above during one event, and we've definitely been able to increase consumer engagement within the event with special promotions and driving people to Sprint-sponsored areas.

"A main objective has been to get fans to download and activate NASCAR's mobile application, which has seen high success rates, so we're pushing that into our NFL partnership," she said.

Several carriers revealed that they are growing their mobile marketing and advertising divisions to address the needs of brands and agencies.

"We're bringing in folks that are from the marketing advertising media worlds as new hires, staffing up with folks who understand how you identify the challenges a brand has, champion them and bring our resources together," said Jordan Berman, vice president of media innovation for AT&T Advanced Ad Solutions.

"We're focused on the advertisers, doing the heavy lifting to bring their program to life to connect with our customers," he said. "We have to look out for what's in the best interest of the customer, which should align with the brand, because no advertiser wants to piss of a potential customer.

"When figuring out how to enable this relationship between brands and customers, we tend to lean toward the conservative side, because our business is based on subscriptions, although we do have an enterprise business as well."

All of the carriers are selling their ad inventory directly and also have relationship with mobile ad networks.

As expected, the impact of the iPhone was a hot topic.

"The iPhone and the App Store have a heck of a lot of content that is ad-supported, and we all have premium content as well, but the model is changing," Mr. Berman said.

"Ad-supported applications are having a halo effect across all devices, not just the iPhone, and we're helping brands to explore things like mobile shopping apps, going beyond display ads and messaging and really rolling up the sleeves," he said.

"The mobile phone is becoming a Swiss Army knife and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox, because mobile isn't just text messaging, it isn't just a CRM tool, or the mobile Web, or applications, or 2D bar codes -- it's all of these things."

Sometimes, however, mobile evangelists need to take a step back and simplify the equation for brands, especially ones that are still stuck in the paradigm of traditional media.

"Standards, education and promotion are critical, making people understand the value of mobile so brands embrace and champion the channel," Mr. Berman said. "If you're spending a lot on TV and online, it's easy to go back to the well, so we have to change behavior.

"We can increase advertisers' level of engagement by threading them through multiple experiences, and the Holy Grail is to connect the dots between consumer behavior across different media, which AT&T is spending a lot of time on," he said.

Other panelists echoed the valued of a multichannel, three-screen strategy.

"We're staffing up -- my division has tripled -- but we're not focusing only on mobile, we're focusing on all of our screens," said Stephanie Bauer Marshall, manager of mobile advertising for Verizon Wireless. "We educate brands about what we're doing and how we can help them meet their objectives.

"All of us here are supportive of advertising, but not everyone within each carrier is, but our message is that every other medium is supportive of advertising, so why shouldn't mobile be?" she said. "We have to create a revenue stream for our partners and lower costs for our customers, free it out for consumers via ad support, and we've come quite a long way.

"We've launched several new ad products, signed a great new deal with Microsoft and opened up considerably to mobile advertising and cross-platform advertising between TV, mobile and online."

Verizon Wireless recently tapped Mobile Posse for the launch of the free Daily Scoop mobile application, which lets subscribers receive information and offers from restaurants and retailers in their area.

Subscribers will receive discounts on products and services based on stated preferences.

It is important to integrate mobile into other media, as well.

"Designing a marketing campaign should be a consultative process, with the strategy depending on the brand's objectives, what you're trying to accomplish," Ms. Marshall said. "Mobile supports text, the Web, video, etcetera, so look at the whole ecosystem and think of mobile as part of a holistic approach.

"We're focusing on cross-platform campaigns, get them on TV, get them online, get them on mobile," she said. "We've seen a positive impact on campaigns that use all three screens -- it works.

"Mobile can do so many things, including downloads, click-to-call, click-to-video, text alerts and capturing email addresses, so think about your objectives and consider different implementations aside from mobile Web banners."

Panelists stressed that carriers do see the value in providing more relevant advertising from brands to consumers, and that despite the prevalent view that carriers are withholding consumer data, currently brands can target based on consumers' age, gender, zip code, device type, DMA and household income.

A leading Turkish carrier compared and contrasted its market to that of the U.S. With a young population, mobile marketing has achieved impressive results in Turkey.

"We care about advertisers, and every year our mobile marketing revenue increases by 50 percent," said Tugba Bilgili, director of business development, mobile marketing and advertising for Turkcell. "Carriers can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction with mobile marketing campaigns, and consumers can benefit from campaigns and promotions.

Turkcell has an opted-in marketing database of 7.6 million consumers, an impressive tally.

"We see very high response rates in the mobile platform, because our consumers clearly opt in voluntarily, they want to get the brand messages, so we see response rates between 15 and 85 percent," Ms. Bilgili said.