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Category: Mobile and Brands
Posted by: Chris
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A commonly asked question is, "How did my campaign perform compared to the average?" You know it's a good question as soon as you hear it, as it raises lots of other questions.

Did the SMS response correlate in a sales uplift? Did the SMS response increase awareness of the brand unprompted and prompted? Did the response increase intention to purchase or brand trial? Mobile marketing is a highly accountable media so campaign planning will include the definition of objectives and metrics to measure the success of the campaign in relation to the goals. With sales data taking a number of weeks to filter through, it's useful to have a snapshot of how things went beforehand. Mobile marketing campaigns offer real-time metrics and often the final leg of the marketing communications chain - response - brand managers find this a very useful early 'indicator' of overall campaign performance.

Brand managers can extract more from this performance 'snapshot' if they also look at historic data to unveil true campaign performance over the longer term and the effect on brand performance. How did the metrics compare to the previous campaign? Is the response trend improving or declining or is it static? Did the response cost more or less to achieve than past campaigns taking into account inflation? Did the supporting choice media selection or the big creative idea lift metrics? This data is straightforward to collate and is a useful indicator of on-going brand equity and should be on every marketers 'mobile marketing strategy' checklist.
Category: Consumer Control
Posted by: Chris
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The Lift 06 Conference in Geneva earlier this year included a presentation from Stefana Broadbent that examined how consumers use various communications media including fixed line telephones, IM, social networks and of course mobile. Her ethnographic studies showed that SMS, is of course a very intimate channel, this much we know already. But interestingly she characterised the messages that consumers send one and other across it as 'Grooming' messages - thank you's, endearments and things that keep relationships alive. Her studies show that over 50% of communication over SMS is 'relationship grooming.'

This represents challenges and opportunities for marketers. We know that consumers will allow trusted brands short term access into the privacy of their mobile 'cocoon' but developing long term relationships - mCRM - is far more difficult. Brands that deliver their message in a manner that doesn't respect 'Grooming' phenomena will be rejected. What kind of communications will be accepted? Those that are brief, relevant, engaging, amusing and emotional. In short just like those we send our friends and family.