Marketing set to hit a mobile streak
By Simon Fuller. In the past few months, we’ve brought you everything from handset soaps to barcode photography on the mobile phone, along with a welter of branded iPhone apps. But just how big is this mobile marketing thing going to be?
Pretty big, according to Internet marketing outfit Ambergreen. “I think [mobile marketing] is key to the future,” says the company’s technical director, Grant Whiteside. “We’re in an interesting space. One thing I find is that things have crept up to our doorstep – there has not been a big explosion, a big event [in terms of the increase in the ways mobile phones are used].
“The teen market is full of kids with a lot of phones – which is just another form of information retrieval,” he adds. “Info retrieval has moved so fast. What teens are doing – using [their] mobiles as a way of using both the phone and the Internet – it’s common sense that this is the way [mobile marketing develops].”
Mobile phones also have an edge over other digital marketing channels in Asian markets and in developing countries.
“In the Far East, there is less web stuff as it costs more for broadband and a PC,” says Whiteside. “So there are more mobile phones than people – people sleep next to them, [phones] are always on. So common sense says to use mobiles [in marketing].
“In Africa, the lack of broadband means there are more phones than PCs, laptops,” explains Whiteside. “Africa is moving digitally quickly, so they’ll use mobiles in large numbers.”
The tech continues to improve too. “All of a sudden we have Android and iPhones… more and more people will [be using] info retrieval on phones,” Whiteside says. “And there are things yet to come on the market, or are just coming on the market, like augmented reality.
“Eventually the MP3 player and the phone may be one [and the same],” he adds. “It has been done already though there will be more functionality… but it’s hard to see how it will go. Will it become all-encompassing like the PC? An entertainment and information hub for the home? I think it will, phones will eventually be great for [both] entertainment and info.
