The world we live in gets easily bored and craves novelty. Smart marketers look for new ways to put a twist on old standby marketing and advertising techniques. Marketing through television and radio channels has been done to death and has more nuisance value than anything else as far as the audience is concerned.

For marketers seeking new ways and means to expand their reach anywhere their prospects are — the future is here. Smart marketers and advertisers create a personal touch in their ad campaigns. This is one of the reasons why mobile advertising is rapidly increasing in popularity as an effective marketing tool. And the astonishing use of mobile devices leveraged this trend.

There are over 1.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide according to the International Telecommunications Union with the highest growth percentage coming from emerging economies like China, Russia and India. The US has about 200 million mobile subscribers. Smart marketers are tapping into the potential to reach their prospects as they’re on the move. Mobile devices are practically a permanent attachment for people under age 34.

Mobile Advertising is delivered in a number of formats. Text messaging, mobile internet advertising and mobile radio advertising are some of the common advertising formats. Out of these, text messaging (SMS) is the most widely used format.

According to the joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR) released by Limbo and GfK Technology, text message usage is about 74% in India, 48% in the UK and 22% in the US. Projections predict in the near future mobile internet advertising will surpass text message advertising (FierceWireless).

In June 2008, Nokia launched the Nokia Advertising Alliance that aims to make mobile advertising easier for advertisers. This particular program includes services like providing marketing strategies, geographic targeting and related technologies to enhance customer captivation. Now advertisers can work in conjunction with Nokia to expand the coverage of mobile advertising with emerging mobile technologies for more powerful ad promotions.

The best part about mobile marketing is mobile devices are more heavily used than traditional PCs. Mobile advertisements are delivered to the customer no matter where they are. Even with these advantages, mobile advertising is still in its “early adopter” stages with a long way to go. The main obstacles are in the form of data tariff structures, handset and mobile internet interactivity and quality of subject matter.

Like the early days of the Internet, there are more advertisers than quality content. Add to that an acute lack of tools to assess the performance of mobile ad campaigns. Even though most of these difficulties will be solved in the future, mobile advertising will still face competition from other advertising and marketing methods. Google, Microsoft and Nokia are the prominent players in mobile advertising. The future holds a huge potential in terms of revenues from mobile advertising.

According to a report released by Informa Telecoms & Media, it is estimated that mobile advertising will generate USD 1.72 billion in 2008 and will rise to USD 12 billion in 2013. The report also advocates the use of banner ads as an effective tool in mobile advertising. The report highlights the significance of focusing on the long run and not the short term stumbling blocks.

Yahoo jumped on the bandwagon in June 2008 when it partnered with Publicis to integrate Publicis mobile advertising agency (PhoneValley) with Yahoo’s mobile developer platform language (Blueprint). The partnership is aimed at developing brands, reaching customers and maximizing sales through new techniques. It also aims to initiate cutting edge advertising strategies in the future.

Since the potential market for mobile advertising is huge, a few companies are exploring new horizons and expanding in new territory. For example, Millenial Media Inc., is venturing into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Millenial develops ads for cell-phones and mobiles. Its CEO Paul Palmieri says “There is a tremendous growth opportunity for mobile advertising on a global basis, as evidenced by a rich and active mobile direct marketing industry, as well as surging demand from top brand advertisers.”

The media industry and brand advertisers are slowly catching on and making use of mobile advertising to increase market penetration. Mobile advertising has added support from applications like ringtones and pictures. Bluetooth advertising is also growing in popularity. Here, a company can advertise its products or services over a fixed area.

The three major search engines: Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have already realized the potential and the possibilities of the mobile advertising market. MSN uses banner ads on MSN mobile pages. Earlier MSN’s mobile advertising was confined to countries like France, Japan, Spain and UK. Recently it expanded coverage to include the US. Google also launched mobile image ads. When the cell phone browser is opened these image ads are displayed on the screen. However, the ad size is much smaller as compared to those for web pages. These image ads are connected to a web page and they follow the price-per-click model Google AdWords uses.

Mobile Advertising is one of best forms of mass medium advertising. It’s personal, and has a wider reach than any other form of advertising. It’s still early to comment on exactly how big or how successful it will prove to be. However, by all indicators “the future’s so bright you gotta wear shades.”

The predictions about the future revenues generated through mobile advertising optimistic. A brand advertiser, a mobile advertising company and the consumer will have different perceptions of mobile advertising. However, mobile advertising also comes with its fair share of drawbacks. Mobile ads are sometimes viewed as another form of spam and the advertisers as spammers. To resolve this issue, there are programs developed to give subscribers free talk-time for performing certain activities related to viewing ads. As far as the opinions of consumers are concerned, it’s a mixed bag. This is because people are simply not accustomed to being paid to view ads. Even if they are paid to view them, many still view the ads as a nuisance. It doesn’t make sense for the advertiser to pay a consumer to view ads if there are no conversions.

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NEW YORK — Intera Group, Inc. and Macerich([R]) (NYSE:MAC), one of the country’s largest owners, operators and developers of major retail properties, today announced the launch of Intera’s AzureMayan(TM) Bluetooth([R]) Proximity Marketing network at five Macerich regional shopping centers in the greater Los Angeles area. Intera’s network enables advertisers and merchants to deliver special offers and promotions via Bluetooth to patrons’ mobile devices.

This launch includes Westside Pavilion in West Los Angeles, The Oaks in Thousand Oaks, Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, Lakewood Center in Lakewood, and Stonewood Center in Downey. Bluetooth zones are located in or near food courts, cinema box offices, lobbies and other strategic locations throughout the more than six million square feet of retail space.

“Mobile marketing is vitally important for reaching consumers today and in the future,” said Scott W. Burchard, senior vice president of business initiatives for Macerich. “It makes perfect sense to partner with Intera to deploy their Bluetooth network as shopping centers provide a unique opportunity to reach millions of consumers with relevant offers at the point of sale.”

Macerich focuses on high-growth, attractive U.S. retail markets. In addition to properties in California, the company’s portfolio includes some of the country’s top-performing shopping centers in Arizona, the New York City metropolitan area and suburban Washington, D.C.

Intera’s AzureMayan Bluetooth Proximity Marketing network enables marketers and advertisers to deliver highly targeted messages to consumers based on their location and near the point-of-sale, when targeted marketing has the greatest effect. Most importantly the mobile user incurs no usage or data charges, unlike wireless carrier-based offers. Intera’s network is 100 percent opt-in, so consumers only receive offers and promotions if they choose. Intera’s content delivery system supports all major content formats including video, audio, images, downloadable mobile applications and text. Download rates are typically much faster than via wireless 3G networks.

“Macerich operates some of the nation’s most dynamic retail centers and serves as a model to other mall owners and operators looking to enrich value for tenants,” said Kevin Thornton, CEO of Intera. “Intera’s AzureMayan Bluetooth Proximity Marketing network has generated outstanding returns for advertisers, especially in environments where consumers have numerous options and are looking for the best possible retail experience.”

Intera Group is promoting its solutions this week at the National Retail Federation’s 98th Annual Convention and EXPO in New York City, booth number 1637.

About The Macerich Company

Macerich is a fully integrated self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust, which focuses on the acquisition, leasing, management, development and redevelopment of regional malls throughout the United States. The company is the sole general partner and owns an 86% ownership interest in The Macerich Partnership, L.P. Macerich now owns approximately 77 million square feet of gross leaseable area consisting primarily of interests in 72 regional malls. Additional information about Macerich can be obtained from the Company’s Web site at www.macerich.com.

About Intera Group, Inc.

Intera provides out-of-home advertising and telecommunication services to over 4,000 businesses, including big box retailers, shopping mall owners and operators, cinema chains, gas stations and convenience stores, and transportation companies. Intera’s AzureMayan Bluetooth Proximity Marketing network will cover the Top 10 Designated Market Areas (DMA’s) and more in the USA by the end of 2009. Intera is working with global brands and their agencies to maximize the return on their marketing dollars, and partnering with analytics companies to bring online style measurements to out-of-home and mobile advertising. In business for over 20 years, privately held Intera is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. For more information, visit www.interainc.com.

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A lot of people today wonder about whether Bluetooth Marketing, and proximity marketing in general is legal, as people claim it can be considered as SPAM and annoying.

On the one hand, we must first see whether these marketing approaches are legal. Obviously, if they are not, there is no point discussing it any further, we can simply dismiss the discussion and file a law suit against anyone running such campaigns. The legal framework is different in every country around the world, and in some cases dramatically (take for example the death penalty). However, the European Union, now has some common guidelines across all its member countries, and so do the United States, for each state. Therefore, each country might have its own laws and I would be interested if any of you out there live in a country that has any specific laws about proximity or text marketing, I would be very interested to find out. Please leave a comment by clicking the yellow post-it note.

I am only aware of E.U. regulations by the European Commission, and I also came across this article, by Victoria Southern, a solicitor with Pinsent Masons, discussing the legal framework regarding SMS and Proximity marketing, in the U.K. She concluded that proximity and text marketing are both legal, as long as specific guidelines are adhered to, such as the ability to opt-out for the consumer in SMS marketing, and obtaining the consumer consent before sending them any content.

Even with the legality of the approach established, however, we all know (too well sometimes) that some marketing approaches, though legal, can be extremely annoying. In the case of proximity marketing especially, where the consumer is required to opt-in, we must take special care to ensure they have good reason too, otherwise the campaign is destined to fail miserably. I have written a separate article with some advice and tips on running a successful proximity marketing campaign, but the most important thing is not to pass your service on as spam. Proximity marketing is not just about broadcasting an image on to the passers-by mobile phones. It has a lot to do about the content of the message (be it video, image, audio, etc.) and the value the recipient of your message gets from receiving your message. For example, just sending out your logo via Bluetooth to anyone passing by your shop, might seem like a good way to increase awareness and brand recognition, but things are not always like that.

The first time an end user experiences proximity marketing and receives your message there’s a sense of novelty, and interest about the new way in which the message is received, but the user quickly gets accustomed to this, and sees the message for what it really is. When proximity marketing has become more common though, (which, incidentally, is not too far into the future) messages such as these will be considered spam. What you need is to provide some true value-added services to your customers. Give them some reason to want to use your proximity marketing service.

Among the available online resources is also the Mobile Marketing Association website, which contains a code of conduct for mobile marketers, and also provides a number of other resources such as mobile advertising guidelines, etc. These can be useful tools if you are looking to run a successful campaign, and want to avoid common pitfalls, and it’s a good place to start.

In general, I would say the legal issues are easily overcome. What is more difficult, and also of more value and to the point, is picking the right one out of all the proximity marketing services you can offer to your audience, and run a campaign which benefits everyone: the marketer, the end-user, and the service provider. Happy mobile marketing!

Giorgos Saslis

http://www.mobile-marketing-blog.net/

Mobile Marketing Campaigns & Mobile Advertising News.
Bluetooth Marketing & Proximity Marketing Updates.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Giorgos_Saslis

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