As a reminder to our clients who may be promoting a mobile call to action (CTA), following are the advertising requirements for a CTA in various media types:

• Television: Must include pricing, terms and conditions, and opt-out information with font size as large as promotional font. On-air call to action pricing and terms need to be clearly stated, inclusive of both visual and verbal, with the text size at 10-point font minimum, the placement prominent, and length of time on air at 10 seconds
• Radio: On air call to action pricing and terms need to be clearly stated verbally
• Internet: Must include explicit pricing details, terms and conditions location, and opt-out information on the same page and in close proximity to promotional details. The user must not be required to scroll or click to another page. This information must be in addition to any terms and conditions provided as a link on the website
• WAP / Mobile Web (mWeb): Must include pricing, terms and conditions, and opt-out information on the same WAP / mWeb page as promotional details. The user must not be required to scroll or click to another page. This information must be in addition to any terms and conditions provided as a link on the website
• Print: Must include sponsor identification, explicit pricing details, terms and conditions location, and opt-out information on the same page and in close proximity to promotional details. This information must available in the advertisement
• Short Message Service (SMS): All pricing, terms and conditions, and opt-out information must be included in the first and all subsequent service messages

Note: In the above, “pricing” refers to the “Msg&data rates may apply” compliance verbiage.

Please contact your Account Manager or 3Ci Support for more website requirements and compliance information.

I just read a great article about Mobile Marketing targeting teenagers.  It was full of stats that support my thoughts on the mobile response rates of teens. I hate to pigeonhole Mobile Marketing as a “teens only” medium—especially when I am selling to big brands that liberally use the “teens only” objection. These agencies are usually hesitant to implement mobile into their marketing plans because they incorrectly assume that texting is for teenagers who don’t have the buying power of the 25-55 year olds.  They believe their brands won’t see an immediate impact because no one in the 25-55 yr old demographic texts. I continue to disagree with them and I know—based on campaigns that 3Cinteractive has successfully run for our clients— the older demographics are texting and interacting with brands via SMS.

Of course, teens embrace texting more rapidly than the other demographics—just look around any corporate board room. The older generations in the room either didn’t know how to text 12 months ago or they learned how to text from their children. That’s fine, just know that everyone is texting these days. That’s right. Everyone. It is the ultimate direct response vehicle. The key is to figure out where the mobile advertising and mobile marketing opportunity lie and capitalize on that knowledge.

Now, lets dig in to see some statistics on teens’ willingness and openness for Mobile Advertising. Great insight can be gained from analyzing the stats and charts in the article. Look at the second graph at the bottom. Teens were more likely to respond to a Poll or Survey using a short code, but check out the other two bars on the graph. Teens were less likely to respond to SMS ads or use a short code displayed in an advertisement. That is huge for brands and agencies targeting non-teens. Their judgment about teens response rates is actually backwards! Their non-teen target is more likely to respond to their ad. So in the end, teens embrace the newest technology first, but the older demos go deeper and have a greater acceptance. Great news for our agencies and brands trying to gain the attention of the 25+ crowd.  Take a look below…

- Chris Field

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In every retail store… in every marketing medium… marketers pay a premium to hold the ideal spot.

On the retail shelves at your local Apple store, third-party companies pay top dollar to be at eye-level. On the big-demo iPods plastered across the Apple store walls, artists paid even more to have their album listed on the static iPod screen. And on the box of that lovely music device that will fill the stockings of the rampant content generation… yep… someone paid to be there too.

The plethora of on-pack marketing agreements don’t sit with just the big companies with retail space or pretty boxes designed in California. In fact, the heart of Business 2.0 revolves around target marketing. Catch the eyes and ears of your market and provide them with offers your database knows they want.

It’s no different than the billboards on the highway, or the sponsored Google Ads. Behind all these product placement strategies are studies that show: being in the line of sight of your target market will increase your sales. Of course, these studies were merely supporting the gut-instinct of an innovator years before.

Companies have scrambled to bid on the box of one of the 110 million iPods sold since its release - a box that barely makes it through the first 24 hours of unwrapping. This is all because that lovely album art complete with the artist’s name and current hit single will be in the direct line of sight when that box first enters the recipient’s hands.

Product placement… despite being about the right place at the right time… for a few seconds at best… is a proven science. Imagine having the control to dictate the right place and the right time.

No more analysis for the right street corner… in the right city… at the right time… with the right distributer.  Enter… right here… right now… on a device that no one can ignore: their cell phone.

Could there be a better place than in your consumers pocket… and a better time than right when you want it?

So while some companies are still pushing the same research dollars into the same variable-filled marketing channels, the new-age companies are experiencing viral growth like never before, because there is no better place than everywhere 250 million subscribers are, right when you need them.

The next medium of product placement has arrived… in your future consumers’ pockets.

- Ainsworth

I spent the weekend with several very successful franchisees in our area, and of course, they commented on my heavy use of text messaging. As you could imagine, the conversation veered into mobile being such a youth-oriented technology that “doesn’t make sense.” As the conversation developed I couldn’t help but think of the recent Limbo Mobile Advertising report, that addressed this misconception. Here I was, spending a lovely Memorial Day weekend in the Florida Keys at one of their many, large, resort-like homes; I needed a tactful opportunity to let them know they were misled. Alas, the opportunity arose, when the champion of the bunch needed to know more: “So, what is it that you prefer about text messaging?”
My explanation covered a few key areas: First, text messaging is asynchronous so I can communicate with a friend in the background without disturbing other activities or the people around me. Second, text messaging gets my attention but doesn’t require my attention. In other words, I’m inclined enough to check it and respond, but not to the point where I’m annoyed. For a busy businessman, that explanation made sense, and I now had a segue into a few interesting stats about text messaging.
I started out with a bit of the basics - special thanks to Limbo, GFK, and NOP for pulling together this survey.

1. Over 50% of the 255 million mobile phone owners use SMS
This alone shows how widely adopted the SMS medium is. This means, that an audience of ~130 million users has near-constant access (~24/7) and familiarity with this medium. Even better, mobile marketers have the ability to touch these users within minutes, just enough to generate attention, without requiring it. It’s intrusive, but not annoying. So what? If 82 percent of those under 24 use SMS, what does that mean for marketers interested in the older demographics?

2. 50% of SMS users are 35 or over
For 25 or over, that number turns to 75%. This is an astounding figure, as these demographics have purchasing power that can be activated with targeted messages. When I mentioned this to the inquisitor, it became a bit more clear. Those consumers with the most purchasing power are often the most distracted and hardest to activate. Knowing that a call-to-action can be delivered and consumed at a precise moment is previously unheard of. His franchises are focused on chain restaurants so we spoke at length about his current marketing campaigns. Then I asked, “When a businessman gets up from his desk for lunch and asks the inevitable, ‘Where are we going,’ what is he more likely to recall: your competitor’s local advertisement during halftime of the game last night, or the mobile coupon you just delivered to his phone?”

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Most brands are familiar with the potential for mobile, but they still ask the same question, “What do we do with this?” Explaining how to build a mobile marketing campaign won’t cut it anymore. There is another “How to” feature: mobile advertising.
I was reviewing the MMA Global Mobile Advertising Guidelines and came across a great reference piece that I thought would be a great starting point for those entering the mobile advertising space. I’ve included the original list as well as my thoughts on each.

1. Click-To-Call – Users place an outgoing call to the content provider or advertiser.

I like this approach because it is fairly easy to implement on SMS, as well as WAP. Most handsets can recognize an embedded phone number, making this a great starting block. In a recent mobile advertising study by Neilson Reports, 9% of those that were exposed to a mobile advertisement responded with a call.

2. Click-To-Locate – Users find the nearest outlet, or car dealer, or movie theatre, enabled by location based services.

As mobile technology develops, this will be a very powerful tool. Right now, there are too few handsets for this technology to reach its true potential. Instead, I would recommend an SMS directory solution that would allow a user to text in their zip code and receive the closest location.

3. Click to order brochure – Users receive marketing materials by supplying their postal addresses.

If used correctly, this advertising method can help push your products to the market. The areas that have built the unprecedented conversion rates have involved “consumption” on the mobile device, or internet. If the company shows a steady rate of growth based on the number of pre-qualified brochure orders, this advertising will benefit the user. I would recommend placing this type of advertisement as a follow-up marketing message once the user has opted in to an alerts campaign.

4. Click to Enter Competition – Users enter text or sweepstake to win prizes.

This is one of the highest conversion options in mobile advertising. In the study I referenced above, 26% of those who viewed a mobile advertisement responded with a text message. Allowing users to convert on their handset makes the task simple and ensures that even the busiest consumers will have an opportunity to join the list.

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