Last week we released the first official study of mobile consumer behaviours and attitudes towards phone services and mobile marketing. The research, conducted on our behalf by Lansdowne Market Research, is nationally representative and highlights Irish mobile consumer attitudes and behaviours to SMS, picture messaging and mobile internet.
It was found that over a third would respond using text and that more consumers would prefer to respond using the text number supplied as opposed to visiting the website. Marginally more under – 35s would respond when compared with their older counterparts and there is little difference across social classes.
Our report also found that one in five mobile consumers are regularly using the mobile internet. These consumers represent the adoption of mobile internet as a new technology and are namely the “early adopters”. We expect to see considerable growth in this area through the second half of 2008 and going into 2009. Key mobile web services used by respondents vary by age.
While younger mobile Internet users are interested primarily in downloading ringtones, browsing and music, the over- 35s are more motivated by information services such as news and directions. As would be expected, male-oriented services include sports and news-related content. It is, however, significant, that larger numbers of females are using key services such as downloading ringtones and music.
77% of those asked admitted that they had never used the mobile internet and they cited lack of interest, perceived need and high data costs as reasons for this. Interestingly slow service, connection problems or lack of time were not seen as barriers to usage leading us to believe that there is a clear gap in the market for content owners and producers to engage the mobile audience by creating new needs and interests.
Another area of interest to us was picture messaging and we found that 60% of respondents have at some point sent or received a picture message with 10% doing so daily and a further 10% weekly. This supports statistics released by Comreg this week which claims that MMS usage increased by 6% in the last quarter of 2007.
To receive a full report on the research please click here
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Tags: statistics, mobile marketing, ireland, return2sender, mms, mobile internet, text marketing
In association with Dublin's WHPR we have just launched Mr.T on your mobile! Mr.T and Snickers are back on TV this month after huge success late last year and a WAP site full of Mr.T content is being made available in support of the campaign re - launch. The campaign has become iconic for it's advertising and associations with Mr.T. The ads have been downloaded over 800,000 times on Youtube already.
The WAP site features a whole host of content for free download including - ringtones/Mr.T sound bites, wallpapers, the ad itself, the Snickers "Get some nuts challenge" and there's also a competition offering a chance to win an Nintendo Wii.
The full content mobile internet site has been live for over a week now and is being promoted on the Vodafone LIVE portal. Animated banner ads have been up on various areas of the portal as of last Monday (18th Feb) and results are proving that there is real cut - through to be had for early movers in this environment.
Mobile internet runs on a cost per impression model as opposed to internet banner ads, which are charged per click.
Not only are mobile users responding to the ads but activity on the site itself has far exceeded expectations. Visitors in their thousands are downloading content, watching the video ad on their handsets and forwarding the site on to friends. The result now is that thousands of people out there have the Snickers/ Mr.T content on their phones and are free to pass it along to friends via bluetooth and MMS. So now the brand lives in their phones, their most personal device .
To view the banner ads please visit Vodafone LIVE or to be sent a WAP link leading to the site text the word SNICKERS to the shortcode 51727. (Std text rates apply, ROI only)
If not in Ireland you can access the site by typing in the following URL www.r2s.ie/snickers
You can also give us a call on 01 679 0640 if you would like to discuss the campaign further, find out more about mobile internet sites and also mobile advertising! Get Some Nuts!!! Grrrr....
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Tags: mr.t, snickers, mobile internet, mobile advertising, return2sender, mobile content
Music producing Svengali Timbaland ia about to make history by recording the first ever mobile only album. The artist/producer has teamed up with mobile network Verizon to launch their ""Mobile Producer in Residence" program where Timbaland will release a new song every month from March. The music will be solely availble to Verizon customers.
The plan is for Timbaland to collaborate with a new guest artist every month and all tracks will be recorded from the fully equipped Verizon Mobile recording studio bus.
As the bus stops in cities around the US, fans will be able to catch a glimpse of Timbaland's recording process by gaining exclusive access to the Bus itself.
Read what Timbaland has to say on the partnership here.
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Tags: verizon wireless, mobile music, timbaland
I attended the MMF's latest event in Dublin this wednesday where mobile advertising and mobile internet were on the agenda. 02's Gavan Drohan, James Hendry from Vodafone and dot.mobi's Ronan Cremin all presented on how they are working in their official capacities to develop the mobile internet. All panelists gave their thoughts on future data pricing models and on how marketers might use consumers' mobile data to make advertising more relevant. It was encouraging to hear these sort of discussions happening in Ireland.
I was particularly impressed with Gavan Drohan's presentation, O2 have completed several mobile advertising trials in the past 6 months and have conducted consumer research on the back of this. Especially insightful was the fact that most consumers hold negative feelings towards advertising and marketing messages coming through their handsets until they experience it. So, according to 02's new research, when consumers actually use mobile internet services and see what all the fuss is about, they are far more open and willing to interact with brands in this space. Thus proving that we have to get more and more consumers up and running on mobile internet, using WAP and mobile search to actually see the benefits and incentives before mobile advertising can take off in any real way. It is fair to say that data charges and operators are the main barrier to adoption of the mobile internet and high costs to the consumer are holding it's growth back, which brings me nicely to the catch 22...
Meteor's representative Eamon Howe quite rightly pointed out in the debate that revenue coming from mobile data consumption is where the money is at for the operators right now and any future growth for these organisations is going to come from here. This is especially true as operators are faced with very real challenges such as new EU regulations on roaming charges, VOIP, Instant Messaging and little or no growth in SMS. Can't help but get the feeling that currently consumers feel uncomfortable using mobile internet services because of the... yep you guessed it - costs. So in conclusion this new internet is the new money maker for operators but they are the ones who are crippling it's growth by charging so much. Nuff said really!
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At a marketing breakfast hosted by the marketing society today key data from last year's Census was presented. Although an 8.30a.m. start of a Tuesday would seem a bit of a struggle on paper the event was packed all to find marketing relevance in the CSO's most recent statistics.
Aidan Punch, Senior Statistician of the CSO, delivered a comprensive account of what the Irish population have been up to since the last census in 2002 and Kay McCarthy, Head of Planning of McCann Erickson Dublin, had everyone engrossed when she added some of McCann Erickson's own insights. So.. apparently we have been producing more babies despite the fact that we have a declining birth rate?? Who knew?!
But seriously, Kay really did share valuable insights in her presentation. Through research recently carried out by McCann Erickson on the back of the census, Ms. McCarthy was able to break down the Irish market into 6 key segments, which she esteemed as a a newer, cleverer take on the demographics (including "new nationals"). Most interesting was how the behaviours and underlying tensions in each of the 6 segments were described . Overall though, changes are most notable within the younger generations (up to the mid 40s).
Collectively we are defining ourselves much more in terms of our interests than what we consume. At the same time Irish people are becoming more and more tech savvy with added doses of sinicism when it comes to marketing. (We kind of knew this but its good to be reminded).
Chris Anderson's Long Tail of demand has become somewhat of a buzzword of late especially within mobile and digital circles but it really is one of the biggies and seemingly Ms. McCarthy also thinks so. Basically, the Long Tail acknowledges the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult to reach mass audiences and explains the reasons why. And finally, we are increasingly becoming a networked society, where we have many many contacts,communities and friends who we keep in touch with through email, bebo, Instant messenger and our mobiles.
So, this means that as a Irish Consumer I am now finding that I have less and less time on my hands, am stressed out with my standard of living (mostly my commute), don't really trust marketers, am finding it increasingly difficult for products and services to meet my individual needs and have a large network of friends to complain about it all to! So, how does a marketer respond to all this?!!! Post your Comments below....
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