Best Practices
8 Unique mobile abilities
- Personal mass medium
- Permanently connected
- Always carried
- Built in payment channel
- Available at creative impulse
- Has most accurate audience
- Captures social context
- Enables augmented reality
Overcoming legal hurdles of mobile marketing
Three of the greatest challenges to mobile marketing are the permission-based nature, the lack of space for disclosures and the absence of uniform national regulation that considers the nature of the medium, according to attorneys who are experts in the field.
Mobile is different from any other form of marketing because it requires express consent, or opt-in, from consumers to be able to contact them. Other forms of marketing such as email or telemarketing only require that consumers have the option to opt out.
“Express consent is exactly just that – an affirmative statement that clearly consents to the communication from the entity sending the message – and broad consents or reliance on an existing business relationship have not been recognized as sufficient consent,” said Andy Lustigman, principal attorney at The Lustigman Firm, New York. The express consent requirement continues to trip up legitimate marketers who are subjected to class action lawsuits with enormous financial exposure for violation of these laws for engaging in what otherwise is legitimate marketing behavior,” he said.
Consent
For example, in the beginning of April, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division found that a Twentieth Century Fox SMS campaign violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for sending SMS to consumers without their express consent (see story).
According to Gonzalo Mon, an attorney in Kelley Drye & Warren’sadvertising and marketing law practice in Washington, there have been a number of lawsuits against companies that sent text messages to consumers without their consent. All of the cases have turned out the same way. The courts have essentially determined that: (a) text messages are subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, even though that law was enacted long before the advent of SMS; and (b) the law requires that companies obtain consent before they send text messages.
“The bottom line is that marketers need to understand that, unlike email marketing, mobile marketing requires opt-in consent,” Mr. Mon said. “Marketers should consult the MMA Guidelines for tips on how to get consent.” Mr. Lustigman said that when contacting consumers via mobile, a marketer must independently determine that the permission-basis for the contact encompasses the specific communication that the marketer intends to transmit.
It is a huge mistake to just rely on a vendor which represents that this is an “opt-in” list without otherwise determining how the permission was obtained to reasonably confirm that the consumer knew he or she was giving permission and whether the permission expressly contemplates the contact by the marketer.
Also, there is enormous financial risk involved in contacting consumers via mobile without sufficient permission. “Remember, a vendor’s representation and warranty is only as good as the financial viability of the vendor,” Mr. Lustigman said. “In addition, be sure to document your due diligence efforts and preserve the basis of the consent should the consent ever be questioned.”
Disclosures
Mr. Lustigman said that another challenge in mobile marketing is the lack of space on a screen even though the traditional rules of advertising and promotional marketing law apply.
Unlike accessing the Internet on a personal computer – where there is a tremendous amount of space for disclosures – mobile marketing real estate is tiny because of the small screen. For example, it is very popular now to run promotions on Twitter. However, Twitter only provides 140 characters for the entire statement.
Mr. Lustigman suggests marketers use tinyurl.com and similar hyperlinks to provide the requisite disclosures, and be sure that the text leading to the hyperlink reasonably indicates to a consumer as to the subject matter of the contents. Moreover, given the limited space, marketers need to make sure that the disclosures that are provided are clear and to the point.
“Another challenge is that most of the enforcement regarding mobile marketers has been by private class action litigation and not governmental enforcement,” Mr. Lustigman said. “Private litigation initiated by class action plaintiff’s attorneys is not an effective way to develop a fair and balanced regulatory structure.”
Premium charges
Premium charges are another challenge. Consumers are likely to complain when they are surprised by premium charges on their phone bills, and these complaints are likely to lead to regulatory investigations. Over the past few years, the Florida attorney general has put pressure on AT&T and Verizon Wireless to more closely monitor how premium charges are advertised.
To settle the investigations, both carriers agreed to include provisions in their contracts with mobile marketers in which the marketers agree to make specific disclosures in a specific way (see story). “Marketers should pay attention to these settlements and make sure they comply with the disclosure requirements,” Kelley Drye’s Mr. Mon said.
Mobile sweepstakes
There are some legal hurdles when it comes to mobile sweepstakes. Per Mr. Mon, it is generally unlawful to require people to pay money to enter a sweepstakes. As text-to-win promotions have become more popular, there has been an increased focus on whether a requirement that a consumer pay a text message fee is unlawful.
“Marketers should make sure that they include a method of entry that does not require the payment of any fees,” Mr. Mon said. “Even then, marketers should be cautious before charging premium text message fees in a sweepstakes.
“There are currently some high-profile class actions pending against text-to-win sweepstakes with premium fees,” he said. ”Marketers should consult with their legal counsel to determine what is possible in this area.”
Privacy
Although privacy has not been in the forefront of mobile marketing, that may soon change. The Congressional draft bill has potentially sweeping repercussions for mobile marketing. Industry experts fear if the bill is passed users may be required to opt-in to all forms of targeted mobile marketing (see story).
Additionally, if the bill is enacted, mobile marketers would likely be obligated to display a privacy policy describing their information collection and use practices prior to the collection of certain information. “And, if a mobile marketer utilizes an unaffiliated third party to implement its campaign – as many marketers do – disclosure to that third party would require a consumer’s opt-in consent,” Mr. Mon said. “Marketers should pay close attention as Congress debates the bill.”
Even though mobile is a new channel, traditional rules of advertising still apply, in addition to specific laws which may directly encompass mobile marketing. Mobile is still evolving and therefore old laws for older mediums such as online are being applied. “Therefore, what may be considered a legitimate practice today, may not be considered legitimate in the not so distant future,” Mr. Lustigman said.
iPad Pros and Cons for Mobile Marketers
While I do believe that this device is in some ways visionary, I believe that at its core it’s a media consumption device. As such, it will have certain pros and cons from a mobile marketing perspective. Below is a list of the things I think mobile marketers should pay the most attention to.
1. iPad does not support Flash, but that doesn’t really matter. Flash is great, but marketers really use it for video. So the real drawback here is that current Flash assets will not be supported, but of all new content developed for the iPad can utilize video capabilities.
2. iPhone penetration in this country is between 4-5%, iPad will not even be close to that for some time. You have to remember that only 2 out of every ten people in this country have a smart phone. Out of those two, less than one has an iPhone. The iPad, although visually appealing has certain barriers, price being the biggest one, that will keep its overall penetration numbers low for at least the next year.
3. The apps developed for the iPad represent new media channels, but the apps themselves are not marketing delivery systems. For example, Ford may design an ad to run on the Time Magazine iPad app, but they wouldn’t develop a Ford marketing app to run on the iPad. In my experience, apps that are inherently marketing focused tend to bomb. Just ask Chase about their gifting app that was met with less than favorable views.
4. iPad marketing works best when it’s based on experiences, not messages. It’s going to take a long time for marketers to kick their nasty habit of writing a headline every time they create a new campaign. Most web-based advertising still suffers from this triassic approach that ad agencies started. Make sure that you have a user-experience expert at the table when you start a project, their involvement will be invaluable. Also, Apple’s new “iAd” platform that we keep hearing about will likely make this new process much easier. But beware, even though it’s a new technology, the media buys are going to be expensive.
5. If you are just starting out in mobile marketing, then start with an SMS campaign, not an app at all. I said the same thing two years ago and the same is true now. Mobile marketing is hard enough to do well. Add a fragmented audience and multi-device scenario to the mix and it’s godawful hard. Start with SMS, build your database and move on from there.
Retailers finding ways to put buying power in shoppers’ hands
From NorthJersey.com
In the brave new world of retailing, stores are going to be less concerned about what’s in shoppers’ wallets and more interested in what’s on their mobile phones.
Retailers and a wave of start-up companies are rushing to create smart-phone and iPhone applications that let shoppers compare prices, redeem coupons, lend a friend $25, buy movie tickets and make dinner reservations, and even find the nearest bathroom in the mall.
Right now, most of what’s happening in mobile retail is marketing and promotion, rather than sales and revenue-producing activities. But Web developers and retailers say the day is coming when consumers will be able to wave their cellphones to pay at the grocery checkout line, department stores, and restaurants and movie theaters.
“Consumers love their cellphone,” said Conrad Sheehan, founder and chief executive officer of Chicago-based mPayy, which is developing a mobile payment system that shoppers can use instead of credit and debit cards. “They’ll walk out naked, but they’ll have their cellphones.”
This past Christmas, Wayne-based Toys “R” Us Inc. let shoppers shrink the company’s 80-page holiday toy “wish book” down to cellphone size, through an iPhone app. Toys “R” Us also introduced mobile shopping in November, allowing customers to make purchases from their phones, as well as read customer product ratings and check if items sold out at one store were available elsewhere.
Pizza Hut Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill are selling thousands of takeout orders that were placed via mobile phone.
Verasoni Marketing in Little Falls is helping Rod’s Steak and Seafood Grille in Morris Township create a phone app that will allow diners to access the restaurant’s reservation system, check if a table is available and make a reservation.
Aetrex Worldwide, a footwear company based in Teaneck, has developed software that lets stores scan impressions of a customer’s feet and send the images to a cellphone, along with the store name, address, phone number and information about the customer’s shoe size.
“The app world right now is where the Internet was 15 years ago,” said Abe Kasbo, CEO of Verasoni. “It’s still young.” He has no doubt that apps are the future. Having a Web site now without apps, Kasbo said, is like having a typewriter instead of a computer.
The National Retail Federation, at the beginning of this month, held a daylong “mobile boot camp” conference in San Francisco attended by 160 retail executives from around the country. “Retailers are at various stages with mobile,” said NRF Vice President Ellen Davis, whose organization represents 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments. “Most of them can understand and see the power of cellphones and smartphones with today’s shoppers, but they are trying to figure out how to leverage it,” she said. “Where to start seems to be the biggest hurdle.”
The NRF is preparing to introduce a mobile-retail initiative within the next month that would combine representatives from the federation’s various divisions to study issues related to mobile shopping and applications.
The NRF doesn’t have statistics on how many retailers have launched mobile applications, and speakers at the mobile boot camp conference cautioned against the rush to mobile retail.
Research firm Parks Associates estimated recently that the number of smartphone users is expected to reach more than 1 billion by 2014, four times as many as in 2009. And those users love their apps. The iPhone App Store has more than 25,000 apps, most of them free downloads, and users performed more than 2 billion app downloads in the first year that online store was open.
“We’ve seen the major retailers – Target, Macy’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon — launch great iPhone apps, but the theme of the boot camp seemed to be ’start slow,’ ” Davis said. Retailers need to examine if their proposed app “makes the shopping experience easier, or are you doing an app for the sake of having an app?” she said.
Right now, Davis said, consumers seem to be wary of making purchases via cellphone, or transmitting their credit card information over a phone, the same way many initially were wary of using their computers for online purchases. “People use their phones to find the nearest Banana Republic or to figure out what’s on sale at the grocery store before they go,” she said. But many consumers are reluctant to use their phones to make a purchase, she said.
The most successful mobile apps, experts say, link to the retailer or restaurant’s Web site, where the credit card and other personal information is stored. The mobile app recognizes the shopper’s log-in, and the shopper doesn’t have to transmit any information over the phone.
Sheehan, founder of mPayy, was a senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and head of its consumer-payments business before he founded the mobile payment service. The mPayy app uses a person’s mobile phone number as an identifier, because mobile phone numbers are “globally unique – there’s no two the same,” Sheehan said. “If I want to make a payment online, I simply enter my mobile number and password. If I want to send a friend some money from my cellphone, I type in their cellphone number as the address.”
Users of mPayy can link the service to their bank accounts, or set up a stored value account with mPayy, by sending money to mPayy. The advantage for retailers, Sheehan said, is mPayy fees are about half the price of a debit-card transaction. Companies that have lots of “micro payments” – for example publishers that charge 50 cents for online newspapers – find mPayy’s model attractive, he said. “We can move 50 cents profitably for you,” Sheehan said. “The key is not using the legacy credit-card networks, because those are very expensive.”
The day when shoppers can wave their cellphones at cash registers and walk out with their groceries won’t arrive, Sheehan believes, until the cellphone wireless carriers form partnerships with retailers to create payment devices that work with the phones. “The wireless carrier plays a big role because the device would need to have a chip inside of it for it to work really well,” he said. “And that’s what people expect. You have to give them a reason to do that versus pulling out their credit card.”
Another application that retailers are eager to add to their mobile marketing arsenal is the ability to send targeted coupons or discount offers to shoppers when they are in the retailer’s stores. Most mobile coupons are delivered through coupon collection sites, such as Coupon Sherpa or Cellfire, that let mobile users search among hundreds of online coupons for ones they can use.
MMA to Host Workshops on Mobile Marketing Basics, Measurements and Analytics
Singapore, March 26, 2010 – The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) will host two mobile marketing workshops on April 13, 2010 to introduce interested marketers to the medium and address questions around the metrics behind mobile advertising campaigns.
The workshops will be held at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront in Singapore, ahead of the 2nd Annual MMA Forum Asia scheduled on April 14 and 15, 2010.
“With Asian mobile users constituting approximately one third of the world’s overall market, the region has proven to be a hotbed for innovative mobile marketing campaigns. Keeping this in mind, MMA’s activities in the region have focused on educational and networking initiatives to encourage a better understanding of mobile marketing and advertising as well as industry guidelines and best practices. With these workshops, we hope to provide brands, agencies, network operators, content providers and technology developers across the region with a roadmap for using the mobile channel as an effective marketing tool that produces targeted, measurable results,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director – APAC, Mobile Marketing Association.
Workshop I: Mobile Marketing 101, 10.00 am – 1.00 pm
The first workshop titled will introduce participants to the various facets and available platforms for mobile marketing. Presenters will provide a detailed overview of the mobile marketing ecosystem and share success stories from across the region. The workshop will arm participants with a ‘how to’ guide on planning, organising and partnering for the development and launch of mobile marketing programs as well as monitoring and reporting on the success of these programs. Participants will also learn how to integrate their mobile marketing initiatives into their long-term multi-channel marketing strategy.
The Mobile Marketing 101 workshop will be conducted by Paul Berney, Managing Director – Europe, Mobile Marketing Association; Barney Loehnis, Head of Digital, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy One; Jojit Alcazar, Head of Mobile Advertising, Smart Communications; Konny Zsigo, President, Wireless Developer Agency.
“This workshop will help participants understand the role that mobile can play within communication strategies, both as a strategic and long term channel, as well as a tactical tool for driving direct response and engagement. We’ll cover the creative, media, and service/utility angles of mobility; and we will also provide insight in to global best practice as well as local nuances across Asia. If your target customers or consumers have a mobile device, then you should attend,” said Barney Loehnis, Head of Digital, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy One.
Workshop II: Mobile Analytics, 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
The second workshop, sponsored by Openwave Systems Inc, aims to facilitate an understanding of customer preferences and the measurement and metrics of mobile advertising. Participants will gain skills in developing customer related campaigns by translating rich behavioural data to actionable insights.
Technical Best Practices for Mobile WAP Site Development
Feature phones vs Smartphones
Feature phone
No HTML table support
Single column
Make them light – Restrict to 20kb/page
Smartphones – (iPhone and BlackBerry Phones)
Support for HTML Tables, multi-column
Generous use of graphic images (generally restricting to 20 kb/page) Portrait and landscape mode
Take advantage of dynamic html and javascript
Best Practices
Avoid horizontal scroll bar – architect the site so that the elements on each page do not exceed maximum display width
Use of device detection/dimension detection and stylesheets
Standard device widths of 320, 240, 176, 128
Vertical scroll bar takes up 10 – 20 pixels, depending on the device
320 may mean 300 useable space, 240 may mean 220 usable space
