There’s a great post on iMediaConnection today about something I have been saying for a while. In this article Dean Macri, CEO of Cielo Group, Inc talks about integrating mobile into your marketing campaigns.

Mobile Marketing should be used to make traditional marketing more interactive and trackable.

Dean says:

Mobile marketing is not about browsing. It’s about activating traditional advertising with a direct, measurable and segmented link between traditional media and a mobile call-to-action.   

I completely agree.

On the web, the value of interactive marketing is the direct, measurable link between digital media and a call-to-action, promotional campaign or micro-site. The same holds true for mobile. Mobile marketing can do for traditional media what the web does for digital media, potentially with more powerful results. How? The mobile phone is the ultimate direct-response mechanism found in the pocket of every consumer. Unencumbered from PCs, mobile consumers respond to an ad’s call-to-action immediately, at the moment of peak emotional interest.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why more magazines and newspapers are not using mobile marketing and text messaging to make their content interactive. Don’t the advertisers want the phone numbers of prospects? Don’t the advertisers want another way to measure audience and effectiveness?

SMS and Mobile Technology make traditional ads trackable. You may not know all the people that saw the ad, but you know for sure the ones that interacted with it!

Fom the iMediaArticle:

The image below illustrates how today’s mobile applications can be integrated with traditional media, producing the same benefits as digital media — perhaps even more so when you consider the large reach of traditional media. Short codes (five-digit phone numbers) or EZ bar codes (2D bar codes captured by a mobile phone’s camera) can be placed in any print and out-of-home ad, or on product packaging — i.e., a cereal box, candy wrapper or beverage can. The short codes or bar codes provide detailed mobile links, much like links used with digital media. Mobile links, containing tracking and segmentation parameters, connect directly to a mobile application dedicated to the campaign.

This is exactly what we’ve been saying to our customers. For a tiny cost, you can arm yourself with valuable information about prospects and buyers that you would not have been able to obtain before.

Interactive print ads are the next step in the evolution of print advertising. So many marketers are pulling away from print in favor of the Internet and other media.  Why not give it more life and take it to the next level?

This is a excellentexcellent article that goes into much more detail about packaging and other aspects.

It is a must read for any marketing or advertising person out there.

Mobile: the little platform that could on iMediaConnection

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 11:38 am and is filed under Mobile Marketing, SMS. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.