A newly released report states that mobile data services revenues are up 5% for the quarter(QYQ) and 30% growth is predicted for 2010. 

While this is certainly good news for the wireless industry, it’s also reinforces the opportunity for businesses or organizations to integrate mobile communications into their strategy. With more subscribers wishing to receive content on their mobile phones, now is the time to consider how to best use mobile marketing to achieve your objectives. 

Some highlights of the study include:

Mobile data service revenues in the U.S. grew 5 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q3 to $11.3 billion, a 27 percent year-over-year increase, and exceeding $10B for the third straight quarter.

The outlook for the Q4 2009 and 2010 remains bright and overall data revenues are expected to now increase by over 30% as compared to 2008 with a record-setting Q4.

As of the end of Q3, 67 percent of U.S. subscribers were using some form of data services–consumers now average about 568 messages per month, equating to a message per hour per subscriber.

In terms of the overall economy, the recession is technically over with a 3.5% increase in GDP for Q3 2009 as compared to the 1% decline in Q2 and 6.4% decline in Q1. 

Read the full report issued by advisory firm Chetan Sharma Consulting on Fierce Mobile Content.

I’ve been lucky enough to see David’s present this information in person, and reading his blog the other day, I found he’s posted a video of the presentation that he recently delivered at the Business Marketing Association conference. 

Here is the link to the blog post with the video:

http://www.webinknow.com/2009/10/the-new-rules-of-business-to-business-marketing-pr.html

Here is the direct link to the video: http://www.vimeo.com/6955359

Here is the link to David’s blog: http://www.webinknow.com/

Happy listening and learning!

Fantasea – The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago used a short code to promote a new aquatic show by offering a contest where the respondents provided their email and zip code to enter.  They added the short code to all of their traditional marketing and the response via short code outpaced all of their other tactics.

British automotive retailer Mitchell Group used SMS and email marketing to drive sales up to $1.64 million in just one weekend. Using SMS helped Mitchell reduce missed service appointments by 97 percent.

Text messaging during sports events is used to reduce the number of incidents and improves security at venues by allowing fans to simply and discreetly text a short code with a keyword and a brief description of the issue and its location. Ushers, public safety personnel, first aid and event staff can then quickly and efficiently take action as needed.  It’s also used to engage attendees during the games with quizzes and giveaways.

And one of the most interesting items I came across recently is the program being run by the U.N.’s World Food Programme where they are launching a pilot program to deliver food vouchers through text messages to 1,000 Iraqi refugee families in Syria.

According to the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) adding mobile marketing to traditional campaigns adds the connective tissue that allows marketers to better connect with their audiences as well as better measure the response to those campaigns. “We are seeing mobile as a remote control of an overall marketing or ad campaign,” says Mike Wehrs, president and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). “It is the central device that connects people to all of the different media.”

Because reporting is essential to understanding the success of mobile marketing, our newly launched BETA version of Mobivity 2.0 give users extensive reporting and analytics to measure response to their mobile communications as well as easy access to setting up a variety of keyword behaviors for mobile couponing, contests and voting. 

Time to get a bit nostalgic all while showing the exponential growth of SMS here in the U.S.  When we first started this company back in 2006, the number of SMS messages sent in the U.S. was miniscule compared to our friends over in Europe and Asia. We like many companies entering a growing market put together some marketing materials and power point presentations. I just stumbled across an old presentation of ours from back in 2007 that mentions the # of SMS messages sent on a monthly basis here in the good old US of A. That  number was roughly 20 Billion messages per month.

Here we are some two plus years later and we are sending roughly 123 Billion messages a month, as per a CTIA survey. That equates to roughly 4 Billion messages per day. What we were once doing in a month we now do in under a week. I just cant believe it. We always knew the explosion was coming, but we nevercould have predicted a 600% increase per month in roughly 2 years. 

Simply put, there is no question that the use of SMS has penetrated main stream America. Time and time again we have discussed the importance of  having a mobile presence, and if these numbers do not serve as a wake up call to all businesses, marketers and advertisers nothing will.

2010 is poised to be the biggest year Mobile has ever experienced and those not prepared, or simply those who ignore the obvious, will be left in the dust. With the release of our new Mobivity 2.0 software we have made sure that all of our customers are ready.

Well, the largest mall is the United states totally gets it.  We here at Mobivity have discussed a number of times on this blog the power of Mobile coupons, and it appears the Mall of America may have been reading.

Mobile Marketing Magazine reports that the shopping center with some 500 stores is now offering shoppers the ability to receive in-store discounts for that day while in the mall. All shoppers have to do is send a text message to a number displayed above the entrance. Anyone who opts in will only receive offers for that day until the mall closes or until they decide to text the word STOP to the short code.

I went to the web site to see how it all works. It appears by sending sending a text with MOA to the short code you receive messages from any of the stores that may wish to broadcast an offer that day.  I think the offer would be far more powerful if you could select specific coupons say "Men’s wear" or "sporting equipment". No offense but I for one do not need to know if a baby store is having a special and with 500 stores at the mall I could receive far too many offers for my liking, which would force me to opt out well before I was done shopping. They are definitely heading in the right direction, but they may need some tweaking to make it extremely successful. Let us know what you think.

Although budgets for mobile marketing fell for the eith quarter, it has slowed its decline according to this new report.

The results of the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether survey seem to confirm our report from yesterday regarding online spend – however, it reveals that marketing spend fell for the eighth quarter running in Q3 but with the smallest reduction in budgets in over a year. Due to a strong rebound in business confidence – 47 per cent of companies surveyed are seeing improved prospects, consistent with the economy returning to growth.

Among the companies surveyed, advertising was the only category to see an increase in spending since Q2, 2008.

Says Jim Houghton, Head of Marketing Services, BDO LLP: “It will come as a great relief to the industry that the economic pressures seem to be easing. Evidently this relief won’t be uniform, with online and sales focused marketing disciplines the strongest. After two years of dramatic decline, the industry also needs to reflect on what recovery will mean when it does finally arrive. The recession will no doubt have a long-term impact on marketing agencies but with intense competition and continued constrained budgets, companies will have to drive both brand and sales. Well targeted marketing spend will be key to achieving this objective.”

Says Rory Sutherland, IPA President, Vice- Chairman, Ogilvy Group UK: “Although marketing spend is still falling this latest Bellwether is an encouraging sign that budget cutting is slowing. Whilst companies are still understandably wary the report reveals a strong rise in business confidence and the suggestion that GDP may well have risen in Q3. It will be interesting to see whether the rise in internet spend will presage an upturn in other categories.”

Sounds promising. We have definitely seen an increase in spending and agencies that have signed up to use Mobivity, and believe it will only grow from here.

In 2009 we’ve seen major brands test the waters with mobile couponing and find success — many driving revenue at higher levels than traditional online campaigns. Jiffy Lube reported a regional 10% redemption rate and overall, a higher response rate than its Web component.

My take is that mobile marketing is poised to become a mainstream tactic just as Web, direct mail, email blasts and advertising are used to prospect, build brands and drive revenue.  The exciting thing is that mobile marketing is not just for the big boys. No matter the size of your business or organization, in 2010 you should consider including SMS in your communications and promotions– otherwise you’ll miss an excellent opportunity to connect with your audiences. To be successful, the program must be correctly executed and to do so, you’ll need to understand your audience and create offers that speak to their needs.

In terms of demographics, mobile marketing is no longer just for the 25 and under crowd. Moms are a great target — working mothers spend 21 percent more on their monthly wireless bills (www.scarborough.com); and at USA Today their mobile audience is older and skews 70-30 toward men.

Luckily there are cost-effective mobile marketing platforms that allow you to stick your toe in the water without significant risk, so you can do some testing and develop the correct strategy. A recent CTIA panel agreed that you should use multiple channels for your mobile marketing, adding it as another component of your traditional marketing.

So get started…think out of the box, use what you already have in place, and make sure your mobile call to action is integrated into all of your traditional activities.

(more about Jiffy Lube campaign)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-1-2009/cnn-warns-against-texting-while-driving 

Join us for our first of the series  – Introduction to Mobivity 2.0 on Wed, October 21 @ 1:00 EDT.

The Mobivity 2.0 team will give you a 30-minute overview of the new features and then conduct a question and answer session.   

In the interactive Webinar, you’ll learn about the:

• The overall features and capabilities of Mobivity 2.0
• The new designed User Interface – we made it easier and more intuitive to use the platform increasing your productivity.
• Detailed Reporting and Analytics – now you have access to more detailed data for hosted platform campaigns and 2-way SMS analytics to get a better understanding of the success of your campaigns.
• Updated Support Center – access contextual help as well as on-demand videos and learning tools.
• New Developer Center – tools and documentation for those who want to create custom applications using Mobivity’s 2.0 API. 

Whether you’re a startup, reseller, agency or an everyday company that wants to better market to their customers, this Webinar will give you a 360° view of our new platform; and get you up and running on the new version quickly. 

Mobivity 2.0 is a major step in the evolution of our industry leading mobile marketing product.  Don’t miss out on how you can get the most out of the new features – register today!

Future webinars include:

• Start and manage a mobile marketing & SMS business using Mobivity’s private label solution
• Power your interactive marketing or advertising agency with Mobivity behind the scenes
• Introduction to the Mobivity Web Services and SMS Gateway
• Building a 2 way SMS Stock Quote delivery app with our API in less than 30 minutes!

There will be many more after these so stay tuned! In addition to these webinars. we are producing many video tutorials and updated documentation.

On-demand mobile marketing platforms like Mobivity provide you with low out of pocket costs and speed to market. With little risk, marketers can get their mobile coupon promotions lined up and running. Once you’ve got your strategy and integration into your traditional marketing mapped out, it takes just minutes to setup and run a mobile coupon campaign. With the open rates at 97%, it’s a no brainer to start using mobile coupons for prospecting and retention campaigns.

Major points to consider:

1. The SMS marketing message space is relatively spam free and uncluttered resulting in a 97% open rate (83% within the first hour) for messages.

2. Mobile coupons work best when incorporated into your traditional marketing programs, include your short code whenever and wherever possible. Also, give your program time to build, your first few offers will serve to build your database.

3. Once you’ve got your database created, consumers react positively to exclusive coupon promotions. For instance, the clothing designer Armani held an exclusive in-store preview for their mobile clientele that had lines out the door and near record receipts.

4. Act accordingly in this marketing space — read the trade guide and visit the industry association websites for more information (MMA and CTIA).

5. Now is the time to start thinking about how you can incorporate mobile coupons into your marketing objectives. Your competitors are thinking about it or doing it, so don’t be left on the sidelines. .