The New Era of Mobile
What you need to know to monetize your greatest assets—content and audience—on the ‘fourth screen.’
February 2010 By Jay Wilson
|
The 8:15 a.m. train to Grand Central Terminal was crowded, and, standing in the back of the car, I observed the commuting rituals of 30 suburban New Yorkers. Eight were reading newspapers, five listening to iPods, five on BlackBerrys, and four were engaged in honest-to-goodness, face-to-face conversations. A lone Kindle made an appearance toward the front of the car. The balance spent the 27-minute ride into Manhattan staring out the windows or sleeping.
An unscientific survey, to be sure, but one that lent some insight into where the publishing industry has been, and where it's going in terms of mobile media. Those five BlackBerry users weren't simply checking e-mail; they were on social networking sites, reading industry news or, like me, browsing the morning's mobile edition of The New York Times.
A recent Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) study, "Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Digital Market," indicates that the print media is moving quickly to develop such platforms. Almost 52 percent of publishers surveyed indicated that they are distributing or formatting content for mobile.
But the platform is just the cost of entry into the new era of mobile. The ABC survey also indicates that publishers haven't yet grasped the power of this new channel to generate engagement with customers, revenue from subscribers and, more significantly, advertisers.
Case in point: The survey reported that publishers believed that sponsorships, search, banners and other traditional online advertising formats had the "brightest future" as revenue models for their mobile initiatives. Certainly these, coupled with subscriber fees, will account for the bulk of mobile revenue for the publishing industry, at least in the near term. Indeed, Verizon recently reported mobile banner click- through of 2 percent, much higher than the 0.3 percent it found for traditional online banners. The ABC survey also indicates that publishers "are anxious to tout their brand's extensive distribution platforms" from a circulation-auditing perspective. Ka-ching!
These types of numbers are attracting advertisers to mobile, but alone they won't be enough to keep them there. Those click-through rates are sure to erode as clutter increases, and as the publishing industry adopts mobile on a widespread basis, relative circulation is unlikely to change dramatically. Additionally, traditional online media budgets, even when applied to mobile, will likely fluctuate along with seasonality, economic conditions and other familiar factors. The key is to differentiate your mobile offering to gain incremental advertising dollars that show positive return on investment, as they are less prone to such fluctuations.
Imagine an attendee at your company’s next conference looking for a session room or exhibitor. Despite your best efforts at effective signage, this happens often.
Imagine now, instead, that she can text her question via her mobile phone to the event organizers and get a text back with the answer.
A new company called Mosio has created a mobile platform, Show360, that enables text chats between attendees and show staff, using a “keyword” (for example, the keyword ‘PubBusiness’ could be used for the Publishing Business Conference). The answer text, of course, can be sponsored, with the sponsor’s message appearing at the bottom of the text.
Messages are archived, informing show organizers of the most frequently asked questions on-site.
The service also can enable attendees to text questions to speakers during seminars or submit feedback to event organizers, or organizers can conduct on-site polls.
Event schedules and exhibitor listings can be provided via mobile Web sites as well (requiring no apps to be downloaded to view the content).
Give Exhibitors a Little ‘Mo’ for Their Money
Now imagine an attendee entering an exhibitor’s booth and sending a text message to the exhibitor’s keyword. He gets a reply text requesting a valid e-mail address. Once the attendee replies with his e-mail address, an e-mail is automatically sent to the attendee with the requested information (e.g., whitepapers or other collateral)—and the vendor collects the e-mail address.
Event organizers can offer exhibitors this feature, called Mocard, as a value-add or as a premium service, enabling the publisher to generate additional revenue, suggests Gabriel Macias, Mosio’s vice president of sales and marketing.
You can text “SHOW” to 66746 to test it (standard text and data rates may apply).
Potential for Publishers and Print Advertisers
A few publishers are offering Show360 services to their advertisers, says Macias—so readers can send a text to the advertiser’s keyword (sold as a premium on the print ad rate) and engage directly with the advertiser.
Another potential use for the service, says Macias, is for outbound communication with your audience, such as text alerts that can be sent year-round.
—Noelle Skodzinski
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
Secrets of Direct Marketing Testing
The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing
Social Media ROI
Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)
