Submit Mobile Friendly Web Sites to Mobile.Chaos365.com Directory

Are you the developer or publisher of a mobile friendly Web site? Or perhaps you are looking for an easy to use free directory to access from your mobile phone.

Mobile.Chaos365.com is a free directory of mobile friendly Web site URLs for people on the go. Web site URLs are included based on usefulness for mobile users.

Inclusion in the directory is based on quality, not quantity of links.

Please use the Mobile Friendly Web site Submission Form to review the requirements and send your recommendations.

Thank you.
Roland

Tips for planning a mobile marketing campaign

If you’re planning a mobile marketing promotion, take the time to plan carefully. Mobile marketing is still relatively new in the U.S. In contrast to Europe, Americans have not experienced the cool potential of mobile devices (micropayments, bluetooth data downloads, etc.), nor are they as tolerant to the concept of receiving promotional messages delivered to hand held devices (phone, PDA, smartphone).

Based on real experience over multiple projects, I suggest the following:

• Get multiple project bids from mobile promotion providers and scrutinize the differences carefully.
• Decide whether a vanity short code is worth the extra cost, or will a random short code suffice? Vanity codes typically cost twice as much per month to rent. You can use either the numbers or the letter equivalents. Examples of useful vanity codes:
• Tie the vanity short code to an event date:
  “Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with us. Text FUN to 50505 for details.”
  (50505 = May 5th, 2005)
• Tie the vanity short code to a related topic:
  “Try Brand X Contact Lenses. Text TRY to MYEYE for free trial details.
• Short codes can be 5 or 6 letters or numbers long. You can lookup available short codes yourself. Or ask your provider if they maintain a portfolio of easy to remember short codes (e.g. “212121″) they’ve reserved for use.
• Test whatever you can. If you have consumers text a keyword to a short code, set up different keywords to appear in promotional messaging. For example:
• For TV spot: text TRY to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• For print ad: text GET to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• For outdoor: text GO to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• Decide whether you will pay all the transmission charges (Mobile Originating “MO” and Mobile Terminated “MT”) or will the consumer possibly be charged? Clearly communicate that in your offer.
• Confirm that your promotion will work through all the major carriers. Some carriers might not permit downloads (e.g. ringtones, wallpapers) over their proprietary networks.
• Make sure you understand the reporting data you’ll get from the mobile provider.
• What specifically will the mobile provider give you access to?
• Is the data real-time?
• What data wont you get?
• What exactly does geographic reporting data represent? (The phone number’s area code is not useful considering that someone with a New York area code might have moved to Florida and kept the number.)
• If you are driving to a Web site for offer registration, consider the following:
• Be clear about whether you intend to contact consumers again via SMS to set their expectations. Get their opt-in consent for future contact.
• Make sure you have sufficient lead time. Promotions and offer details often need to be complete and submitted to various carriers for their formal review and approval. Allow time for that and a buffer in case you need to make some significant last minute change.
• Make sure opt-out messaging, process and policy are in place and reviewed by your legal counsel before a campaign begins.
• Find out what phone/carriers your clients use so you can make sure they will all work. Maybe collect them now under the impression that you are building a small group of exclusive testers prior to consumer launch.

The Mobile Marketing Association publishes best practices and conduct guidelines you should read. They have periodic Webinar on various topics and often showcase examples of work being done beyond ringtone and wallpaper downloads.

I hope you found this useful.
Good luck!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Written by Roland Reinhart · Filed Under .All, Mobile Marketing 

A contest doesn’t have to have a prize

July 19, 2006

As advertisers struggle to come up with ideas to engage the elusive and fickle youth market, the incentive is always a topic of debate. What do you offer: free iPod, music, Sidekick, game console, cash?

How about… nothing? Or put a marketing spin on nothing and make it “bragging rights”? Here’s an example:
http://obey.msn.com/

Obey is a mobile scavenger hunt. Each week, participants must take a photo of an object and submit it.

The fact that Sprite is the brand behind this is not obvious. The only obvious hint is the lemon-lime theme. (Put that and the name “Obey” together and you might recall Sprint’s old theme “Obey Your Thirst“) Hidden links take the user to more content where Sprite connects with consumers in the offline world via their Urban Games.

What’s most important is engaging your audience in a meaningful way that they will want to participate. A fun challenge without overt branding will be accepted. Allowing marketers and legal folks to muddy the concept with cross-sell messages, pages of legal disclaimers and all around bad judgement will surely lead to failure.

What are your thoughts? Is a prize incentive critical to success?
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Written by Roland Reinhart · Filed Under .All, Inspiration, Mobile Marketing 

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