They Can Hear Us Now

January/February 2008 Issue: Page 60

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The president of the Mobile Marketing Association says that ads on mobile devices will only get better, more widespread and easier to create and measure.

Laura Marriott is president of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and spearheads efforts to get mobile marketing adopted worldwide. The MMA is a global nonprofit trade association with more than 500 members in 42 countries. It works toward removing obstacles to market development; establishing standards and best practices to sustain growth in mobile marketing; and being an evangelist for the mobile channel. Marriott was previously director of marketing for Intrado, and the director of business development at Cyneta Networks and Cell-Loc Inc./Times- Three Inc. Senior Editor Eric Reyes asked her some pertinent questions about where mobile marketing is going.

ERIC REYES: What is the history of the MMA? When and why was it formed?

LAURA MARIOT: The Mobile Marketing Association was initially formed in 2000 as the Wireless Advertising Association (WAA), a New York-based nonprofit trade association. In 2003, the WAA and the Wireless Marketing Association (WMA), based in Europe, joined to form the Mobile Marketing Association. At that time, the MMA had only 10 member companies, which included companies like m-Qube, Mobliss, The Weather Channel, Carat Fusion and Vindigo. The chairman in Europe at that time was Cyriac Roeding, who is our current global chairman, and in the United States, Jim Manis. The MMA remained around 10 to 20 member companies until 2005. At the same time, mobile marketing, in the United States, began to take off – we had interoperability among the carriers, a short code system for ease of consumer experience and a supportable revenue model. The MMA also established four national chapters in Europe in 2003 to 2005 – Austria, Spain, the U.K. and France.

The key differentiator for the MMA is that we have representation from across the mobile ecosystem – working in a collaborative, trusted manner to educate the marketplace and build guidelines and best practices for the mobile marketing industry. Members include handset manufacturers, wireless operators, technology enablers, aggregators, media companies, brands, agencies, market research companies as well as any organization focused on marketing via the mobile channel.

ER: Last year was supposed to be the year mobile marketing hit critical mass. This year, mobile marketing still seems to be finding its way. What are some of the indicators that mobile marketing is continuing to gain traction?

LM: Absolutely right! The number of campaigns that we see launching has grown into the tens of thousands worldwide. Indicators in the United States include: short codes listed on traditional and digital media as an integrated element of the overall campaign. For example, on billboards, magazines, television, etc.; membership in the MMA doubling year-over-year since 2005; the number of award submissions in the MMA award program growing from just over 100 last year to more than 260 in the 2007 program; brands and agencies establishing mobile divisions and hiring mobile specialists within their organizations; mobile has become a line item in the advertising budgets of many very large brands; mobile is being integrated into not only the verticals that want to be in front of the consumer all of the time, i.e., financial services, travel, entertainment, CPG, QSR and automotive, but we are now seeing mobile move even into durable goods and other segments; the growth of text messaging in the United States, increasing from 7 billion a month in 2005 to over 30 billion a month in June 2007; and an increase in number of short codes – the 5- to 6-digit number which helps to facilitate ease of interaction between brand and consumer – issued on behalf of the CSCA has climbed to over 2,600 in 2007.

ER: What has mobile marketing enabled marketers to do better?

LM: Mobile marketing has enabled the brands to develop a conversation of engagement with their consumer – a dialogue about their products and services and a means to effectively measure and evaluate this dialogue. Mobile also enables brands to target their consumers, anytime and anywhere, through their most personal device: their mobile phone. Consumers are in the driver's seat on encouraging and defining the interactions with their brand – wherever and whenever.

ER: Some say the real gold mine in mobile is m-commerce (to make purchases directly from your mobile device). What is the MMA doing to enable this ability?

LM: The MMA has established a mobile commerce committee that is working on guidelines for digital and physical goods transactions, mobile couponing/ticketing as well as other issues having an impact on the ecosystem. The goal is to always ensure a positive and consistent experience for the consumer.

ER: What do you do to help brands enter into and perfect their mobile marketing initiatives and campaigns?

LM: Education. The key so far has been helping to educate the brands on the role of mobile in their marketing initiatives – and how to integrate a mobile call to action into the overall integrated marketing campaign. The MMA publishes a broad set of mobile case studies, white papers, glossaries and so on, to help to educate on how to use the channel most effectively and to learn from the experiences of other brands that have tried before them. The MMA also runs Mobile Marketing Forums at www.mobilemarketingforum.com, which is our key event series to educate and evangelize on the mobile channel. These are held in every region around the world, four or five times a year and have become the premier event for mobile marketing.

ER: What do you do to help mobile marketers establish better customer metrics in their mobile efforts?

LM: The MMA has launched a measurement initiative, in June 2007, to define the metrics in a consistent manner for the industry. Measurement will be one of the key issues facing our industry in 2008. The MMA and the GSM Association are working together to ensure consistent measurement and metrics solutions for the industry.

ER: Does the MMA help establish best practices for mobile marketers? What are some of those practices initiated by the MMA?

LM: Yes; this is the foundation for the MMA – and we have been leading in the development of cross-carrier mobile content guidelines and best practices as well as mobile advertising guidelines since 2005. Current best practices/guidelines include: consumer best practices for cross-carrier mobile content services; mobile advertising for mobile Web; and mobile advertising for downloadables. The MMA has also published a number of best practices documents which include mobile couponing, mobile search, mobile promotions and sweepstakes, and so on.

ER: What does the MMA do to help streamline mobile search? Do you suggest standards?

LM: To date, the MMA has not suggested standards for mobile search; however, we have published two thought leadership pieces which include an introduction to mobile search and mobile search use cases, which outline the best practices and options for offering and evaluating a mobile search solution. Continued on Page 2...

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